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.
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, hired a Republican consulting firm called Targeted Victory to “orchestrate a nationwide campaign” against TikTok, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
Mortgage rates reach sky-high levels amid the spring prime time for house buying. Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, joined Cheddar News to talk about what buyers should be looking for this season. “The only way to make affordability better is to assure that we have increased supply assure that the home builders are not facing any artificial barriers," he said. "We need to construct more homes, also construct more apartment buildings, because rents are rising very fast for the renters."
A federal judge has given the go-ahead for a class-action lawsuit against Facebook parent company Meta over allegations it exaggerated its advertising reach and overcharged advertisers. Jon Swartz, a senior reporter for MarketWatch, joined Cheddar News to give his take on the impact the legal action might have on the social media giant. "Remember Facebook is the ultimate Teflon company in tech. FTC investigates, it's constantly being accused of anything from the left to the right in terms of misinformation, yet it continues because it's the biggest brand of its kind and number one in terms of what it tries to do. It continues to benefit," he said. "So it's going to take something magnificent, not a class action suit, but something bigger and beyond that to knock them off the rails."
If you have a minute, Protégé thinks it might be enough to get your talent noticed by stars and industry movers like DJ Khaled. Jackson Jhin, co-founder and CEO of the platform, talked to Cheddar about how the services might better democratize access to performing arts like music and acting. "You have 60 seconds to send a video to the best experts in each industry and send it to people who otherwise would have been inaccessible," he noted. For a wide-ranging fee, applicants can submit their work to garner feedback from folks like Jason Alexander or Scooter Braun — with a money-back guarantee, according to Jhin.
Job openings hovered at a near-record level in February, little changed from the previous month, continuing a trend that Federal Reserve officials see as a driver of inflation.
Ron Carson, CEO and Founder of Carson Wealth, sits down with Cheddar's Hena Doba to share how the blueprinting process keeps him on track to achieve goals and live life by his own design.
Around 4.4 Million Americans have either quit their jobs or changed them this past February. The high turnover comes as the Bureau of Labor reported that there were more than 11.3 million job openings despite 6.7 million people getting hired.
