U.S. Economy

U.S. consumer inflation cooled to 2.4% in January — a nearly five‑year low — as lower gas prices and cooling housing costs helped pull the CPI down. Item-level swings were large (eggs down 34% year‑over‑year while ground beef and roasted coffee rose about 17%), inflation averaged a 2.6% annualized rate from November–January versus 2.9% July–September, the cooler reading surprised some Fed watchers but most economists still don’t expect a March rate cut, and some warn official shelter data may be artificially low because October CPI was imputed during the government shutdown, with normalization expected by March–April.