What Yesterday's CPI Means for the Fed and Stocks

A hotter than expected CPI print tanked stocks yesterday, wiping out this week's rally and then some. The markets were hoping that CPI, which is the Fed's favorite inflation gauge, would show that inflation is plateauing and that their policies are working. Under these assumptions it would be reasonable to think that after September's rate hike, they would take a more dovish position. However with red hot inflation beating expectations, this is clearly not the case, and some think the Fed will double down on their stance, hiking rates to 100 bps when 50 bps was more likely just a few days prior. The S&P 500 responded accordingly, smashing through the 4000's, and reestablishing the 3000's, finally finding support at our level at 3928. It is likely the markets will equilibrate as we digest CPI, so expect the S&P to remain bounded by 3909 and 4009 for now. We will need to wait for more data to come out this week (retail sales on Thursday and University of Michigan sentiment on Friday) to get a clearer picture of the state of the economy, and how the markets will react further.