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PCE index, the Fed’s preferred inflation measure, drops to 2.1%. Here’s what it means for interest rates.
The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure, dropped to 2.1% last month on an annual basis, close to the central bank’s goal of a 2% annual rate. That could cement more rate cuts ahead in 2024, according to Wall Street economists.
September’s PCE was in line with the median forecast from economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal, and represents a decline from August’s 2.3% rate, according to Commerce Department data.
Given the surge in post-pandemic inflation, the fact that headline inflation now sits just a tenth of a percentage point away from the Fed’s target is a significant achievement. Last month, the Federal Reserve made its first rate cut in four years amid signs that inflation was inching closer to its 2% goal, providing some welcome relief for consumers with credit card debt or who are in the market for a loan.
The latest PCE data is the index’s lowest reading since February 2021, noted EY Chief Economist Gregory Daco in an email.
“No tricks, just some consumer and inflation treats,” Daco wrote. “We continue to expect the Fed to ease policy by 25bps at every meeting through June next year amid resilient but moderating growth and cooling labor market trends.”
That could bring the federal funds rate, currently at 4.83%, to about 4.4% in December, and down to 3.4% in June 2025, he added.
Inflation is down, but prices are still up
But despite the Fed’s progress in bringing down the rate at which prices are rising through high interest rates, U.S. consumers remain unhappy with the cost of living in recent years, and the topic remains front of mind for many voters ahead of the election on November 5.
The PCE index and other inflation yardsticks, such as the Consumer Price Index, measure the change in prices over time of a typical basket of goods and services. But many Americans view inflation as the actual prices they’re paying at the store.
While inflation has cooled, prices remain high — they’re just rising at a slower rate than during the inflationary peak of the pandemic. That may also explain why more than 1 in 4 people polled by YouGov in August said they think the current inflation rate is over 10%, or more than quadruple the actual inflation rate.
Both Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and Republican contender Donald Trump, have floated proposals they say will help bring down the cost of essential everyday items like food and gas.
contributed to this report.
A grand jury in Nevada has again indicted Nathan Chasing Horse on charges that he sexually abused Indigenous women and girls for decades, reviving a sweeping criminal case against the former “Dances with Wolves” actor.
The 21-count indictment unsealed Thursday in Clark County District Court, which includes Las Vegas, again charges the 48-year-old with sexual assault, lewdness and kidnapping. It also adds felony charges of producing and possessing child sexual abuse materials.
It comes after the Nevada Supreme Court in September ordered the dismissal of Chasing Horse’s original indictment, while leaving open the possibility for charges to be refiled. The court sided with Chasing Horse, saying in its scathing order that prosecutors had abused the grand jury process.
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson quickly vowed to seek another indictment.
The initial 18-count indictment charged Chasing Horse with more than a dozen felonies. He had pleaded not guilty.
His lawyer, Kristy Holston, had also argued that the case should be dismissed because, the former actor said, the sexual encounters were consensual. One of his accusers was younger than 16, the age of consent in Nevada, when the abuse began, according to the indictment.
Neither Wolfson nor Holston immediately responded Thursday to phone or emailed requests for comment.
Ty ONeil / AP
Best known for portraying the character Smiles A Lot in the 1990 movie “Dances with Wolves,” Chasing Horse was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, which is home to the Sicangu Sioux, one of the seven tribes of the Lakota nation.
After starring in the Oscar-winning film, authorities have said, he propped himself up as a self-proclaimed Lakota medicine man while traveling around North America to perform healing ceremonies.
He is accused of using that position to gain the trust of vulnerable Indigenous women and girls, lead a cult and take underage wives.
Chasing Horse’s arrest last January reverberated around Indian Country and helped law enforcement in the U.S. and Canada corroborate long-standing allegations against him, leading to more criminal charges, including on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana. Tribal leaders had banished Chasing Horse in 2015 from the reservation amid allegations of human trafficking.
The 48-year-old has been in custody since his arrest last January near the North Las Vegas home he is said to have shared with five wives. Inside the home, police found firearms, 41 pounds of marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms, and a memory card with videos of sexual assaults, CBS News previously reported. Police said that at least two of the women were underage when he married them: One was 15, police said, and another was 16.
When the Nevada Supreme Court ordered the dismissal of Chasing Horse’s indictment, the judges said they were not weighing in on his guilt or innocence, calling the allegations against him serious. But the court said that prosecutors improperly provided the grand jury with a definition of grooming without expert testimony, and faulted them for withholding from the grand jury inconsistent statements made by one of his accusers.
Chasing Horse’s legal issues have been unfolding at the same time lawmakers and prosecutors around the U.S. are funneling more resources into cases involving Native women, including human trafficking and murders.
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