The October consumer price report due Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. Eastern will be the last CPI reading the Federal Reserve sees before its Dec. 8-9 meeting, and it will arrive without the usual annual inflation rate.
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect prices to rise 0.3% from September, after a 0.6% gain the month before, Yahoo Finance reported. Core prices, which exclude food and energy, are expected to rise 0.2%, down from 0.3%.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has said it will not publish 12-month changes for indexes missing October 2025 data, which it could not collect during last year’s government shutdown. Some forecasters have produced their own estimates, including FactSet medians of about 4% for headline inflation and 2.8% for core, according to investingLive. Those are not official figures.
Yahoo Finance reported that traders see an 83% chance of a quarter-point increase in December. Bank of America economist Stephen Juneau said he sees risks to core inflation as skewed to the upside, while Dave Sloan of Continuum Economics expects a more subdued reading.
Investors will focus on the core figure. investingLive said a 0.3% core gain would push traders back toward a December increase, while 0.2% or less would strengthen the argument for holding rates steady.
