Surging inflation has eased in recent months, but more evidence is needed to show that price increases are coming down in the long term, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday. (Photo by Yuki IWAMURA / AFP) (Photo by YUKI IWAMURA/AFP via Getty Images)
Prices rose half a percent in January, according to the latest consumer price index. That is up from a 0.1 percent decline in December, and five times the 0.1 percent increase in November.
The monthly uptick was in line with expectation, though the year-over-year rate came in higher than expected 6.4 percent, a marginal drop from a 6.5 percent rate in December.
Shelter (i.e. housing) contributed the largest share to the monthly increase, rising 0.7 percent.
Energy costs were also up across the board. The price of piped gas shot up 6.7 percent, while energy overall was up 2 percent after two straight months of declines.
Food prices, meanwhile, were up 0.5 percent. That is up from 0.4 percent in December, but still low relative to the last six months.
Used car prices also continued their steady decline, dropping 1.7 percent month-over-month and 11.6 percent year-over-year.
Despite the month-over-month drop, the annual rate has slowed for seven straight months.
Catching you up on what you need to know on April 26, 2022, with Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter for $44 billion, Russia warning of a possible threat of World War III, the FDA approving a COVID treatment for children under 12, and more.
Amid a spate of Big Tech earnings reports on the horizon, social media giant Twitter accepted Elon Musk’s $44 billion offer to buy the platform. Musk has already signaled his intention to take the company private, and Angelo Zino, a senior equity analyst for CFRA, joined Cheddar News to talk about tech-related business news and what taking Twitter private could mean for the company. "His kind of vision is clearly on softening his stance on content moderation. You're going to see him do it, and we'll kind of see what else he has in store in terms of the pipeline of enhancing the product out there," Zino said about Musk's plans. "But there's a lot more he can do as a private company than he can do as a public company."
As Bitcoin's price continues to dance around the $40,000 mark (in real-time), Jimmy Nguyen, President and Co-Founder of the Bitcoin Association for BSV, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he discusses the recent volatility that has dragged Bitcoin's price down from its all-time high of roughly $69,000 in November.
