AI is not yet competing in the Paris Olympics, but it is part of the team.

I'm David Brancatia. First, there's an index of personal consumption.

The Guardians of Interest rates like to watch.

The June date of this morning was in line with inflation expectations.

Up just a sliver in a month, up 2.5% over 12 months.

Christopher Lois, Chief Economist at FHN Financial.

Morning.

Good morning, David.

In this uncertain volatile world, sometimes it's nice that something comes in in line with

expectations.

Yeah, and that's exactly what we saw in the inflation data today.

Not only inflation lower in the quarter, but lower over the course of the quarter it really is good news relief

for consumers especially prices for things like gasoline and food and this is

the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation.

Do you think what we saw today could prompt the gang to actually lower interest rates

when they meet next week? You know the Fed, super cautious is the watch

word over there. I don't think they cut next week, but I do think they could give a strong

signal that they are willing to go in September.

September, pretty close to the election there.

Won't that feed into partisan rancor?

It probably will, but honestly, this Fed is so determined to be a political.

They will be looking at everything except what's going on on the political side in Washington.

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