Chicago Fed's Goolsbee Calls October Inflation Report "Borderline Disturbing"

What Goolsbee said on the report

"It's another distressing report, borderline disturbing," Goolsbee said Tuesday on PBS Newshour. "We've been hoping to get progress." He was responding to figures released earlier that day showing core consumer prices advanced 0.3 percent in October from September and topped estimates again.

Why services and other factors matter

Goolsbee said he had expected some of the forces that pushed prices up - tariffs and elevated energy costs among them - to have faded by now. He added that services inflation has been stubborn, calling it "perhaps the most troubling part."

Where policy talks stand

Asked about the potential for a larger move, Goolsbee said he does not like to precommit ahead of a meeting and noted he is not a voter on rates this year. "I will say, it's literally the biggest table I've ever seen in my life in that room. So everything is always on the table," he said. "We must get inflation back down to target, and it's going the wrong way at this point." Separately, Waller signaled that, if inflation does not improve, officials might deem a one half point rate increase at the December meeting necessary.

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Why this matters for your portfolio

Core inflation surprising to the upside for three consecutive months keeps the door open to tighter policy. That combination - sticky services prices and a Fed signaling it could do more - raises the odds rates stay higher for longer, which tends to pressure rate sensitive assets while supporting cash yields.

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