Fed rate hike call seen tight as U.S. inflation heats up - BNN Bloomberg

A U.S. Federal Reserve interest-rate decision later this month may be a closer call than previously thought, traders bet on Wednesday, after U.S. Labor Department data showed consumer prices were up 3.7 per cent last month from a year earlier, well above the Fed’s two per cent target and moving in the wrong direction. Higher gasoline prices from the Middle East war were a main driver. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, the core consumer price index (CPI) was up 2.6 per cent, more than the 2.5 per cent economists polled by Reuters had projected.