• In another setback for the Federal Reserve’s inflation fight, data showing inflationary pressures cooling in recent months were in fact a mirage, and show underlying price pressures actually have been accelerating.
• The new findings out Thursday from the New York Fed add a fresh complication to the monetary policy outlook and could help reinforce the view that aggressive Fed rate hikes have yet to make the needed dent in price pressures. That, in turn, could drive the central bank to go even further with rate increases over time.
• The New York Fed report focuses on an in-house model called the Multivariate Core Trend, which is designed to provide a more complete reading on the factors and trends coming out of the personal consumption expenditures price index, which is the Fed’s preferred way of measuring inflation.