What happened
The Bureau of Labor Statistics plans to post its October consumer price index on Tuesday, but one of the most watched numbers will not be there. The 12-month percent change will be absent because the 2025 government shutdown blocked BLS from gathering parts of the October 2025 price sample, and some of that missing data could not be recovered later.
Which figures are unavailable
BLS spokesperson Cody Parkinson said the gap means the agency cannot compute the year-over-year change for either the headline CPI or the core index that strips out food and energy. The knock-on effect extends to paychecks too, as the year-ago comparison for inflation-adjusted earnings will not be released.
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What this means for your portfolio
Investors will still get the monthly inflation pulse on Tuesday, with economists looking for a 0.3 percent month-over-month increase in CPI and a 0.2 percent rise in core CPI. But the usual 12-month yardsticks will be missing, even though September's year-over-year CPI was 3.7 percent.
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