Opinion | Jay Powell’s Mixed Price Signals

Everyone expects the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) to hold firm on its interest-rate target when it announces the results of its policy meeting on Wednesday, and the latest price signals suggest that’s the right stance. The consumer-price index for November showed Tuesday that inflation still isn’t vanquished, and the Fed will do better to ignore the clamoring on Wall Street and Washington for rate cuts.

Consumer inflation rose 0.1% for the month, after not rising at all in October. That’s good news overall, but the price index for the last 12 months is still 3.1% higher. This is a huge relief from the 9.1% inflation peak of June 2022, but it remains higher than the Fed’s target of 2%. There’s still work to be done.