Investors got some good news this week on the state of the labor market, and more may be on the way Friday on inflation. The consumer price index, a broad measure of goods and services costs across the U.S. economy, is expected to show a 2.5% gain from a year ago, according to the Dow Jones consensus forecast for the January release. If that ends up being accurate, it would bring the widely cited inflation gauge back to its May 2025 level — a month after President Donald Trump enacted his “liberation day” tariffs, which many economists thought would send prices spiraling higher. The headline, or all-items, CPI was at ... (full story)