https://apnews.com/article/cpi-inflation-consumer-prices-affordability-3985019a54c82421e6112fb57baba048WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. inflation accelerated last month as gasoline and many other goods and services became more expensive, evidence that rising prices remain an economic challenge just a few weeks before midterm elections that have focused heavily on affordability. The consumer price index rose 3.7% in September compared with a year ago, the Labor Department said Wednesday, up from 3.4% in August. On a monthly basis, costs jumped 0.6% from August to September, the biggest gain in five months, up from a 0.4% increase the previous month.The figures underscore the lingering impact of the Iran war on gas prices and the stubborn persistence of inflation, which has ticked higher since the war began in late February. The rise isn’t all linked to oil and gas, as surging investment in data centers and AI has also pushed up prices for computer chips and the consumer electronics that use them. Elevated inflation has posed political problems for Republicans in Congress and is a challenge for the Federal Reserve, which is required by Congress to seek stable prices.Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose 2.6% in September from a year ago, up from 2.4% the previous month and higher than economists had expected. And they climbed 0.3% from August to September, an elevated pace that, if it continued for a year, would run well above the Fed’s 2% target.Higher inflation will likely put more pressure on the Fed to lift its key interest rate at its next meeting Oct. 27-28. Economists noted that the report showed price increases were spread more broadly across the economy than in recent months.
“The report was worse than expected,” Bill Adams, chief U.S. economist at Fifth Third Bank, said in a note to clients. “Price increases were widespread .... Consumer demand seems to be holding up better than the downbeat consumer surveys would suggest, helping businesses maintain pricing power.”Wednesday’s figures are the last major inflation data to be released before the upcoming elections. Ongoing inflation has taken a toll on Trump’s standing with U.S. voters. A poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that just 17% of U.S. adults approve of his handling of the cost of living issue. And only 26% approve of his handling of the economy overall, a new low.Gas prices jumped 9.1% just from August to September, the government’s consumer price index report said. Rising gas costs are a highly visible sign of inflation and often drive down measures of consumer sentiment about the economy.With fuel much more expensive, air fares rose 1.2% last month and have soared 22% compared with a year ago. Hotel prices rose 2% from August to September and are up 4.4% compared with a year earlier.Consumers saw some relief in grocery prices, which actually declined 0.1% last month and are up just 1.8% from a year ago. Ground beef prices fell 0.8% in September, though they are still up 5.4% from last year. The cost of toys, new and used cars, sporting goods, and shoes all rose at a rapid clip last month, the government said.The government also said Wednesday that Social Security recipients will receive a 3.6% cost of living increase, based on the inflation figures.The Middle East and Russia-Ukraine conflicts have also sharply inflated the cost of diesel fuel, which is used by long-haul trucks and will likely inflate shipping expense, which in turn could push up prices for a range of goods.
Ralph Newhouse, CEO of Chefman, which makes countertop appliances, said that rising diesel prices could force him to raise prices in the coming months.The Mahwah, N.J.-based company, which makes milk frothers, air fryers, blenders and other appliances in China, last increased its prices in 2024. This year, it has used its $20 million in tariff refunds to offset the rise in fuel costs, but may not be able to do so much longer.“We’re at the point right now that if we continue to see any additional rises in (diesel) prices, then these conversations are going to be forced upon us. We just day by day, hope and pray that we don’t have to have this conversation.”Federal Reserve officials are watching inflation data closely to determine whether they need to raise their short-term interest rate further, and by how much.Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh said last month that inflation isn’t moving quickly enough back to the central bank’s target, causing the Fed to hike rates for the first time in three years, to about 3.9%.Yet some key Fed officials have suggested the central bank can wait before increasing rates again. The Fed has a policy meeting Oct. 27-28, but most Wall Street investors expect it to hold rates then, and potentially implement another hike in December. Fed officials have penciled in just one more rate hike this year.Still, Wednesday’s report has led many Wall Street investors to project that the Fed will now act in two weeks. The odds of a rate increase at the central bank’s October meeting have doubled, though remain at just 50-50, according to futures pricing tracked by CME Fedwatch.
Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh said last month that inflation isn’t moving quickly enough back to the central bank’s target, causing the Fed to hike rates for the first time in three years, to about 3.9%.Yet some key Fed officials have suggested the central bank can wait before increasing rates again. The Fed has a policy meeting Oct. 27-28, but most Wall Street investors expect it to hold rates then, and potentially implement another hike in December. Fed officials have penciled in just one more rate hike this year.Still, Wednesday’s report has led many Wall Street investors to project that the Fed will now act in two weeks. The odds of a rate increase at the central bank’s October meeting have doubled, though remain at just 50-50, according to futures pricing tracked by CME Fedwatch. Stock prices fell slightly after the report, while greater expectations for rate hikes pushed up bond yields, which will raise borrowing costs throughout the economy.By raising borrowing costs, the Fed hopes to slow spending and growth and cool price increases. Yet much of the current inflation comes from supply shocks, such as the Iran war’s disruption to oil and gas supplies, and higher interest rates can’t address those bottlenecks.Warsh has said his goal is to keep the gas price spike from seeping into more areas of the economy. It’s already pushed up the price of air fares about 22% from a year ago.Prices at the pump have ticked lower in the past two weeks to a nationwide average of $4.33 a gallon, according to AAA, though they remain higher than a month ago.Those costs raise shipping and other expenses for many large and small businesses, some of which are forced to pass the cost to consumers. Last week, PepsiCo said that it will raise prices for its snack foods, including Doritos, Ruffles, Sun Chips, and some sodas to offset higher costs for fuel, aluminum, and food ingredients.
The artificial intelligence buildout has also sharply elevated the cost of semiconductors, computer equipment, and electrical components, which have been passed on to consumers in the form of more expensive electronics such as gaming devices, laptops, and smartphones.Goldman Sachs estimated in a report Tuesday that the AI buildout has added about a half-percentage point to the annual inflation rate, according to the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge.On September 1, Nintendo increased the price for its Switch 2 gaming system by 11% to $499.99. And Apple’s newest iPhone, the iPhone 17, cost about 10% more than its previous upgrade, though some of that likely reflects greater capabilities.
The Left/antitariffers/antiTrumpers DON’T understand - the tariffs employed are supposed to do damage… After the damage comes the healing to the Economy & American Businesses.
All of this started under Joe Briben. President Trump is fixing it but he has to end the war in Ukraine and the war in Iran that both started under Democrat administrations. Ukraine started under Joe Briben, and Iran started under Jimmy Carter
Misdirection, as usual.The Right blamed Carter for the recession that started under Nixon and Ford,the Left blame Trump for the near-recession that started under Biden.
>>1543211Another classic anti-Trump misdirection: calling Trump a pedophile when it was Joe Briben who gang fucked kids
>>1543212Actually this inflation is Biden’s fault too
>/pol/tourist discord group has a contest to see who can publicly suck the most Israeli dick on /news/
>>1543214It is. I never said it wasn't.
>>1543216in fact it began in Trump's first term. Covid wrecked the economy.
I can't tell which comments are genuine and which are being sarcastic anymore.
>>1543211Did you know that in 2020 more money was printed out of thin air and dumped into the American economy than in any other year in US history?https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/m2slDid you know the first spike in inflation was in March of 2021, less than two months after the inauguration?https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/inflation-cpiDid you know inflation is a lagging economic indicator?https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/laggingindicator.asp
>>1543217COVID itself did nothing. It was the COVID response. The blown out of proportion disaster that was the COVID response, which occured because Democrats would not stop bitching and Fauci would not stop lying
1543222Looks like Russia has some of their trollfarms up and limping
>>1543227maybe it's herman cain posting from the twilight zone
The Covid recession was Biden's faultIf he had run for president in 2016, he would have won and Trump wouldn't have been able to fuck everything up when Covid hit in 2020
1543216I never said it wasn't1543212>Joe Briben>'Joe Briben' is a fictional nameSo 1543212 admits that Joe Biden had nothing to do with what's happening now. But then, of course Joe Biden had nothing to do with this, because he's not the president now.Thanks for admitting your own opinions are wrong and Joe BIDEN is completely innocent of any & all accusations you make against him without court admissible evidence, "Briben" spammer.The only one bitching and lying is you, blown out 1543222 with Democrat Derangement Syndrome.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/oct/14/najmeh-amini-blasphemy-death-sentence-insulting-prophetreminder that this is who democrats are siding with an administration that executes teens and young adults for religious blasphemy, I feel like its fair game for democrats to be on the chopping board now.
>>1543222Trump was president. Fauci was his health secretary. Trump pushed the vaccine. Trump responded to the Covid pandemic and was in control for over a year of the pandemic. Trump set the precedent for the response. These are facts.
>>1543231Pointing out the fact that Trump’s Iran war is a disaster and he never had a plan or strategy and has dragged us into a quagmire in the Middle East that has driven up costs in the USA is siding with Iran?Okay Comrade, keep trolling, Putin is proud of you. Double bread rations for you this week!
1543222https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/01/us/politics/donald-trump-melania-coronavirus-vaccine.htmlTrump and his wife received coronavirus vaccine before leaving the White HouseTrump vaxx status: confirmed
The Iran War is Biden's faultIf Biden had just been stupid enough to let Bibi talk him into attacking Iran, Trump wouldn't have had to do it when he got back in office and I wouldn't have to spend my days making up reasons why the Iran war is actually good but actually also all Biden's fault.
>>1543234trump didn't start the iran war dipshit good job moving the goalposts you deserve to go to the gulag. you and your family deserve to be the first victims of the iran nukes once they get nuclear power. if they'll lynch someone on home soil for saying something while high on shrooms what do you think they'll do to a blasphemous piece of shit like you
>the iran nukes once they get nuclear power.THANK YOU PRESIDENT DONALD J TRUMP no one could have given the Iranians nukes FASTER or BETTER than you!If not for PRESIDENT DONALD J TRUMP tearing up Obama's superior anti-nuclear deal with Iran, they wouldn't have the nukes to destroy libs for at least another 12 to 20 years. Oppenheimer took longer to arm the US with nukes! TRUMP IS SUPERIOR
>>1543234The Ivan 1543231 is becoming increasingly desperate, certainly when ir comes to news sources. It can no longer use the right-wing Daily Mail, because the day after the election in 2020, that newspaper said Joe Biden was (quote) 'The voice of reason and sanity'. And Daily Mail never mentioned any 'vote rigging' despite claims by Trump then & after, because there was no vote rigging to report.>the most conservative of all UK newspapers Daily Telegraph no longer support Trump>Daily Mail is a right-wing newspaperGot news for 1543231>theguardian.comThe Guardian is a center-left newspaper that supports Labour.>Labour's PM Andy Burnham is pro-LGBTQ+, and supports Saudi Arabia. Trump supports Saudi ArabiaReminder that Trump and 1543231 are liggerals.>UK's Labour = US's Democrats, despite any & all claims to the contrary by 15432311543238 shouldn't have any problem with a Muslim country having nukes, after Trump supplies Saudi Arabia with nuclear technology.Muslims are Muslims are Muslims.
>>1543238You're right, Trump didn't start the US war with IranBibi did, like he's been trying to get the US to do for decadesTrump just happened to be the only president in that timeframe stupid and/or compromised enough to get talked into it
>>1543243death sentence to all treasonous traitors, no mercy especially to the domestic terrorists. lynch a couple ice a few, feed them to crocodiles and deport them to iran.
>>1543243Fake news. President Trump received new Intel indicating that Iran was 2 weeks away from nukes and planned on dropping them on American cities. He acted in self defense of America and saved tens of millions of us.
>>1543245I remember hearing from a very reliable source that President Trump completely obliterated Iran's nuclear capabilities for years if not decades in June of 2025 and that anyone suggesting otherwise was peddling fake newsWhat you're saying, that Iran was able to almost complete a nuclear weapon just eight months later, is an impossibility, and a leftist lie to make President Trump look foolishShame on you
>>1543234Since Ukraine legally destroyed pedo Putin's bot farms, the bots 1543244 1543245 are lonely now. And even more desperate.>pedo Putinhttps://www.military.com/video/off-duty/odd/akward-moments-with-vladimir-putin/3129473236001There's absolutely nothing that Putin the proven pedo nor its pedo-protecting glazers can do to remove this factual news from the internet.
>>1543247It's already been confirmed that that intelligence was from before President Trump and SecWar Hesgeth purged woke traitors from the military. Now that warfighters are back in charge instead of DEI hires, all information is accurate
>>1543249>Implying President Trump would trust something as important as intel about Iran to a bunch of DEI hires and not only act on it but go before the American people and repeat that woke data without verifying itNobody's buying your fairy tales, shitlib
>>1543254The American People are almost entirely woke DEI hires.
>>1543209No one believes this when trump just pockets the money for himself
>>15431713.7% is bad.I wonder why his score isn't 11% like Joe's.Fucking dRumpf is ruining the economy.
>All this attempt to deflect from trump.BTW, traitor trump just broke Biden's record for most days with gas over $4.
