Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Lunch, our afternoon update on today's market action, news, and analysis.

Good afternoon. Today is Thursday, September 11th, and I'm your host, Kim Con. Our top story so far. Retail inflation remains stubborn, potentially taking a big Fed rate cut next week off the table.

The August consumer price index rose 0.4% on the month, topping the 0.3% consensus and accelerating from 0.2% in July. Annually, CPI growth was 2.9%, matching the forecast and advancing from

2.7% in the prior month. August core CPI, ex-food and energy, rose 0.3% for the second month in a row, meeting expectations.

Core CPI remained up 3.1% annually, also matching forecasts.

The index for shelter is the largest factor in the all-itoms monthly increase,

rising 0.4% last month, the fastest pace recorded since the start of the year.

The food index increased 0.5% over the month, with the food at home index rising 0.6%

and the food away from home index gaining 0.3%.

Economist Dernie-Tadeshi notes that core goods in CPI rose 0.3% on the month,

the strongest monthly price growth for core goods this year.

Driven by Popson apparel price growth growth 0.5%, and used vehicles 1%, recent months making clear that tariffs

are materially weighing on consumer prices. And Pantheon Macros says that the pass-through of

tariffs to core goods is only one-third complete. On the more doveish side of data, weekly initial jobless claims spike to a four-year high,

raising even more labor market concerns.

Claims rose to 263,000 from 236,000, well above the 235,000 consensus.

But there could be some Labor Day noise in the figures.

Kathy Jones, strategist at Schwab, said,

jobless claims jump while inflation

stays elevated, tough combination for setting monetary policy. For the Fed's meeting next week,

a quarter point rate cut is fully priced in, and the odds of a big 50 basis point cut

have dropped back below 10%. Skyler Wyand, of Reagan Capital, says, we expect the Fed to cut by

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