Who’s afraid of a January price quirk? Traders

There’s reason to believe that companies occasionally use the start of the year to raise prices. — Bloomberg

INTEREST-RATE cuts are still in the offing in the United States, but you might not think so with the way bonds are selling off after Tuesday’s inflation report.

The latest consumer price index (CPI) reading indicated that core prices – excluding volatile food and energy – rose 0.4% in January from a month earlier, exceeding the median economist forecast.