Kimberly Adams

Good to have you along.

I'm at APM headquarters today instead of my normal spot in D.C.

But back in the nation's capital, this morning we got the latest read on inflation from the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Consumer Price Index registered just a 0.3% increase in the month of February.

Over the past 12 months, prices rose 2.4%.

That's the lowest reading in five years.

But there are, as is so often the case, some caveats to what seems like encouraging news.

Here to give us her expert opinion on the report is Nicole Servi, an economist for Wells Fargo Corporate and Investment Banking.

Welcome back to the show.

Thanks for having me.

Can I just get your quick reaction to the top line numbers?

Yeah.

So in terms of the month over months, those looked pretty good.

But if you look at, for instance, the year over year rates of CPI and core CPI, they both moved sideways.

And what the report suggests to me is that, yes, inflation is not as bad as we had feared by this point in time, but we're also not seeing progress either.

And now we got to think about this energy price shock.

And so while this report is encouraging, I do think it feels a little dated at this point in time, especially once we turn to the March CPI and get some of that immediate reaction to what we're seeing in the conflict in the Middle East.

Right.

This is the giant asterisk on this report, which is that all of this data was before we went to war with Iran.

Right.