U.S. CPI One of Many Price Data Releases Today
October 14, 2026
The dollar and ten-year sovereign debt yields prior to the U.S. CPI data announcement were generally steady today with just a couple of exceptions such a a 0.4% decline of the the U.S. currency against the South Korean won, a 4-basis point drop in the 10-year British gilt yield and a 3-bp rise in its Aussie equivalent.
With fighting on the rise between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia, difficult travel through the Strait of Hormuz and no ceasefire between Russian and Ukraine attacks on one another’s energy installations, West Texas Intermediate crude oil climbed 1.5% overnight to $95.60 per barrel, and Brent is above the $106 level. Gold is marginally softer. Bitcoin also has barely moved, but the price of silver is down over 1.0%.
Share prices in Europe and in U.S. futures trading are also mostly marking time ahead of released U.S. consumer price figures for September, due within the hour. Stock markets in the Pacific Rim closed down 0.9% in China, 0.6% in Australia and 0.1% in Japan and Singapore.
Price news in other key economies reported today show
- A 5-month high in Chinese consumer price inflation of 0.9% last month. Core CPI remained steady at 1.0%, but producer price inflation jumped 1.2 percentage points higher to a 31-month peak of 5.0%, having started 2026 at negative 1.4% in January.
- Spanish consumer price inflation was left unrevised from the preliminary estimate of 4.9%, up from 4.3% in August and 2.3% in the first two months of this year.
- A 1.9% monthly leap in German wholesale prices lifted the 12-month rate of WPI inflation to a 48-month high of 8.9% versus 6.8% in August, 1.2% in January and February, and a low in October 2023 of minus 3.5%.
- In India, wholesale price inflation climbed more sharply than forecast to a 49-month high of 11.4% in September from 9.9% in August and -1.2% in October 2025. The components for food (+8.7% year-on-year), energy (+25.7%) and manufacturing (+9.7%) were at 21-, 3- and 52-month highs.
- Consumer price inflation in September of 2.5% in Finland and 1.1% in Sweden were at 31-month and 18-month highs.
- Consumer price inflation in Poland (4.1%) and Bulgaria (5.7%) were their most elevated in 15 and 4 months, respectively.
U.S. CPI inflation slightly exceeded expectations in September at a 4-month high of 3.7%. The readings for energy and services of 20.4% and 3.2% were at 4- and 3-month highs, while food price inflation slowed to a 20-month low of 2.5%. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, was above the projected 2.5% reading at 2.6%, a 3-month high, and its monthly increase was 0.3% for a second straight month.
The dollar and U.S. equity futures respectively rose and fell following the release of the U.S. consumer price figures, but even more significant was a ten basis point jump of the 10-year Treasury yield to 5.30%. That just 6.5 basis points shy of the 24-year peak touched earlier this month.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore, which subordinates interest rate policy to a target for the Singapore dollar, was left unchanged following modest tightenings done at the previous two quarterly reviews in April and July. At both of those earlier occasions, the slope of planned currency appreciation was increased slightly, while the width and center of the targeted trade-weighted currency corridor had not been adjusted. Commenting on today’s decision, officials opined, “The Singapore economy should continue to expand at a firm pace in the immediate quarters ahead, and moderate thereafter as the AI cycle eases from its exceptional pace and global financial conditions tighten. Core inflation is projected to ease discernibly from the middle of next year, as supply-driven imported inflation slows and domestic costs stay subdued.”
Singaporean GDP for the third quarter was also reported today, a quarterly increase of 1.1% and a one-year low of year-on-year growth to 5.4% from 6.2% in the second quarter and 6.7% in the first quarter. Even at 5.4%, however, growth surpassed the 2025 and 2024 averages of 5.0% and 5.3%.
China’s trade surplus widened more sharply than expected last month to its second largest reading, $133.5 billion from $119.1 billion in August and $88.7 billion a year earlier. Exports and imports were each more than 30% greater in in September 2025, and the year-to-date $938 billion surplus was 7.2% wider than in the first nine months of 2025. Also from China, bank lending figures showed a bigger-than-assumed rebound last month, but year-on-year money growth continued to slow, printing at 7.2% versus 7.5% in August and 8.0% in June.
Copyright 2026, Larry Greenberg. All rights reserved.
Tags: Chinese CPI and PPI, German WPI, India wholesale prices, Monetary Authority of Singapore, U.S. consumer prices
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