Welcome to Seeking Office Wall Street Lunch.

Our afternoon update on today's market action news and analysis.

Good afternoon. Today is Wednesday, September 13th, and I'm your host, Kim Khan.

Our top story so far today.

The market dodged an inflation surprise with the August Consumer Price Index arriving right

around forecasts.

That was the last big data point before the Fed meeting next week and there was

little to suggest it would prompt the FOMC to rethink their plan.

Inflation did ramp up last month, boosted by gas prices and housing, headline

CPI rose 0.6% on the month, boosting the annual pace to 3.7%.

That's up from 3.2% in July.

The Energy Index rose 5.6% on the month and the Food Index increased 0.2%.

Core CPI, the focus for traders, rose 0.3% during the month a little more than anticipated,

but it eased to 4.3% year on year from 4.7%.

Economist Justin Wolfers noticed it was the third month in a row of low core readings.

He said, after the first, it was that's just one month. The

second was good news but not yet a trend. Now three's a trend. Over the past three

months core CPI has risen and an annual rate of 2.4%. Point is, if you take the most recent

number seriously, core inflation is running at 2. something percent, which is

pretty much back to the normal low rates, he said. After the report, odds of the Fed holding steady next week rose to nearly 100% in the futures market.

Odds of a hold in November edged up to 57%.

Pantheon macros Ian Shepardson said he expects the Fed to remain on hold but to signal

...