There’s No Such Thing as Free

This was a tough week for the Bulls. There's no other way to slice it. The Bull-Bear tug-of-war continues. The Bear definitely took the higher ground. Bear Markets are a necessary part of the cycle. They're never fun.Inflation is still a big problem. Any hopes that peaking prices were behind us and the Fed is getting ready to pause its tightening campaign, were completely dashed. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) came in at 8.3% in August. That's a year-over-year number. Importantly, it has fallen for 2 straight months. It's just not falling as fast as expected. Inflation may have peaked at 9.1% in June. Unfortunately, it's staying stubbornly high. Energy was down another 5%, extending last month's 4.6% decline. Gasoline was down 10%, marking 95 straight daily declines. Everything else is up. Food prices were up 0.8% in just a month. That's really high. But it's down from July's 1.1% increase. Food prices have spiked 11.4% since last Summer. That's the biggest annual increase since 1979.