Daily Rundown
September 14, 2026
Chart of the Day
Number of the Day
0.5
The percentage increase in the “supercore” consumer price index in August, the largest in seven months
Quote of the Day
“Reductions in SNAP benefits, higher fuel prices, and softer consumer confidence are all putting pressure on household budgets. Customers are buying more on need.”
Kroger CEO Greg Foran
Friday’s Highlights
The CPI (August) rose by 0.4 percent on the month and 3.4 percent year-over-year.
The core CPI (August) rose by 0.3 percent on the month and 2.4 percent year-over-year.
The U. of Michigan consumer sentiment index (September) slid by 3.9 points to 47.8.
Household net worth (Q2) jumped 7.0 percent on the back of rebounding stock prices.
Quick Commentary
The details in the CPI report were better than the headline, which was pushed higher in part by a 5.9 percent spike in wireless phone services. In addition, the key cyclical housing, recreation, and miscellaneous categories were all well behaved, with the former held in check by the smallest increase in owners’ equivalent rent in eleven months. Still, the overall increase was probably enough to push the FOMC into a rate hike later this week. There would be a potential hit to Fed credibility if policymakers stood pat in the face of a renewed upturn in energy prices, an acceleration in the supercore CPI, and a relentless rise in Treasury yields, especially in the early stages of a new chairmanship. There is little scope for an aggressive tightening cycle, but the disinflation that has been in place for the last four years is now playing out too slowly and unevenly to keep the Fed sidelined much longer.
Daily Trivia
What was removed by crane from Seventh Avenue near Times Square on May 23, 2022 and deposited in the Museum of the City of New York, where it became part of the Analog City exhibition about life before digital technology?
(Friday’s Question: Who was credited as chief creative officer for Heinz’s award-winning 2017 “Pass the Heinz” ads, a campaign that was ostensibly pitched to the company in 1968? Answer: Don Draper (the pitch was a storyline on Mad Men, rejected by the fictionalized version of Heinz on the show, but later used by the actual company in real life))
What was removed by crane from Seventh Avenue near Times Square on May 23, 2022 and deposited in the Museum of the City of New York, where it became part of the Analog City exhibition about life before digital technology?
(Friday’s Question: Who was credited as chief creative officer for Heinz’s award-winning 2017 “Pass the Heinz” ads, a campaign that was ostensibly pitched to the company in 1968? Answer: Don Draper (the pitch was a storyline on Mad Men, rejected by the fictionalized version of Heinz on the show, but later used by the actual company in real life))
What was removed by crane from Seventh Avenue near Times Square on May 23, 2022 and deposited in the Museum of the City of New York, where it became part of the Analog City exhibition about life before digital technology?
(Friday’s Question: Who was credited as chief creative officer for Heinz’s award-winning 2017 “Pass the Heinz” ads, a campaign that was ostensibly pitched to the company in 1968? Answer: Don Draper (the pitch was a storyline on Mad Men, rejected by the fictionalized version of Heinz on the show, but later used by the actual company in real life))