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.
Wall Street closed its first losing week in the last four with an up-and-down Friday, as investors brace for the Federal Reserve to tighten the brakes on the economy more aggressively to beat down inflation.
Baseball is as American as — Apple TV+. The National Pasttime has a new media partner this season, as the MLB will be streaming Friday night doubleheaders on the Apple streaming service. Noah Garden, the league's chief revenue officer, spoke to Cheddar News to break down the details of what's being offered in the new package and why Major League Baseball felt the need to make the move this year. "We've been in a situation where we've lost reach, even within the cable bundle. There are situations where people in the local market don't have access to watch their favorite team and their local team on top of that," he said. "You have cord cutters and even probably more importantly, cord nevers. So streaming offers of some ability to gain reach that we've lost over the the last couple of years, and Apple was really the perfect partner for us."
It's National Beer Day! Miller Lite is celebrating with its new Beer Drops meant to "improve" the flavor of other light beers to be more like Miller Lite. Elizabeth Hitch, senior director of marketing at Molson Coors, joined Cheddar News to discuss the cheeky product taking a jab at the competition. “We found is that a lot of these beer brands were giving away free product, free beer, and we thought what good is it to have a free beer if it doesn't taste good, right? So, we thought about these flavor-enhancing beer drops to actually add flavor to other light beers to give them as much taste as Miller Lite," she said. Hitch also addressed ongoing concerns with aluminum shortages amid supply constraints as well as a foray into NFTs.
