ANALYSIS: Next week's CPI will be the last data to stop the Fed from cutting rates this month

On 6 December, Stephen Brown, an analyst at Capitol Macro, wrote that November's non-farm payrolls data showed that the US jobs market is still not collapsing, but it is not heating up, so next week's CPI and PPI reports could be the last set of data to stop the Federal Reserve from lowering interest rates this December. He said the Fed ‘may be a little concerned about another 0.4 per cent increase in average hourly earnings on a year-on-year basis, but given that the annual rate of growth is still 4.0 per cent, it's not a big issue at the moment’. Brown forecasts a weaker increase in core inflation in November, which would make a 25 basis point rate cut more likely than a pause.