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The Producer Price Index (PPI) data released Friday morning came out hotter than expected, showing a 0.2% month-over-month rise in prices, surpassing the Street's expectation of a 0.1% increase. Interactive Brokers chief strategist Steve Sosnick joins Morning Brief to discuss market outlooks and consumer trends.
Sosnick emphasizes that the PPI data demonstrates that "it's not necessarily a linear path" to bringing down inflation, noting that "you have your ups and downs."
"Inflation is still coursing through the system in certain places," he elaborates, telling Yahoo Finance that the Fed faces a challenging task in analyzing labor market data and economic metrics, to make a decision on interest rates.
Regarding consumer trends, Sosnick expresses concern around the US consumer "getting a bit more bifurcated." Sosnick points out that lower-income consumers are financially pressed, which could have negative effects for the overall economy.
"Ultimately, the economy does have to really respect what's going on with everybody because the consumer is two-thirds of the economy and everybody needs to buy staples," Sosnick states.
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This post was written by Angel Smith