White House Adviser Hassett Says Three-Month Core CPI Already at Fed's 2% Target

MacroDigital Finance

โดย 24/7 Wall St·

Summary · why it matters

On the eve of the Federal Reserve meeting, National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett argued that the inflation problem the committee worries about has already faded, claiming that core CPI measured over the last three months and annualized has fallen to 2%. Hassett said the three-month annualized top line is 0.2 and core is two, which is the target, compared with a top line of eight point something and core of three point something in the prior three months, though he stopped short of calling for a hold and instead framed the argument as one a dissenter might make. The Fed's preferred core PCE gauge is still running above the 2% target, reinforced by a core PCE index that rose 0.2% in July to 130.66, and the policy rate upper bound sits at 3.75%, unchanged since the start of 2026 after coming down from a 4.5% high in September 2025. The 10-year minus 2-year Treasury spread has narrowed to 0.33%, down from 0.51% in May, while the SPDR S&P 500 ETF is down 2.44% over the past month and 1.11% over the past week but remains up 11.07% year to date and 14.6% over the last year. With NVIDIA at 7.58% and Apple at 6.66% dominating the fund, the sustained cost of capital that discounts long-duration earnings matters more to the top-heavy index than any single meeting outcome, and the next core PCE release and the committee's updated projections will determine which framing describes the economy.