Inflation just won't quit

The October CPI rose 0.4%, while core inflation excluding food and energy rose 0.3%; both were higher than economists expected. Andrew Davis of Bryn Mawr Trust said headline, core, and core services excluding energy were all running hot. Gasoline rose 1%, but analysts said the larger concern was the spread of higher input costs into food, vehicle insurance, hospital services, and streaming prices, including Disney+ and Hulu. Tight labor markets, strong demand, businesses’ pricing power, and scarce housing are extending the pressure. With inflation near 4% and wages rising just above 3%, Bethann Bovino said typical consumers are falling behind.

West Texas Intermediate fell to about $86 a barrel from above $100, while national gasoline prices dropped below $4 and diesel prices also edged down. Gregory Brew said the oil market is well supplied, U.S. shipments through the Strait of Hormuz have improved, and Democrats’ congressional gains reduced the risk premium by constraining President Trump’s ability to escalate against Iran. Diesel is behaving differently: November demand is between the agricultural and winter peaks, allowing supply to build, but refinery damage from attacks in Russia and the Middle East may not be meaningfully repaired until next year, with pre-war refining levels not expected until sometime in 2028. Gasoline is benefiting from seasonal demand and easier winter-grade production.

Mia Sato of The Verge said AI agents can research products, compare reviews, add items to carts, and sometimes check out using a customer’s payment information, though actual agentic transactions remain small—some companies report only hundreds or even single digits. She found the tools work like looking through a “pinhole”: users must provide feedback because the agent may narrow its search too aggressively. At The RealReal, Meta’s Muse repeatedly reserved 10 or 20 items for 20 minutes, blocking other buyers for hours; the retailer closed the loophole after her story. Retailers worry agents will ignore paid listings, promotions, and impulse purchases that support businesses such as Amazon. Sato uses AI for ingredient research but would not let it buy without approval.

The Dow fell 157 points, or 0.3%, to 52,231; the Nasdaq declined 187 points, or 0.75%, to 25,065; and the S&P 500 dropped 29 points, or 0.4%, to 7,520. Anthropic, maker of Claude, said it plans an IPO priced at $70 to $78 per share and is seeking a valuation of up to $1.4 trillion. Google, an Anthropic investor and maker of Gemini, fell more than 0.25%, while Amazon, another investor, gained about 1.5%. Bond prices fell and the 10-year Treasury yield rose to 4.99%.

Jean Chatzky said her mother spent Social Security and pension income but avoided withdrawing from her retirement account; after 20 years, the account had grown beyond its starting balance. Research from the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that retirees with about $500,000 in assets, excluding home equity, had spent only 12% after 20 years. Chatzky attributed this to the complexity of choosing among taxable, tax-deferred, and Roth accounts, plus the emotional shift from watching a retirement balance rise to watching it fall. She noted that pensions once provided lifetime monthly checks, while Social Security replaces about 40% of average pre-retirement income. Her advice is to create a “forever paycheck” that covers essential expenses and important wants without converting the entire nest egg into income.

Steve Miller said he retired from the energy industry at 60 and, with his wife Lou Jean, opened Liberty Apple Orchard in Illinois the day after his retirement in 2013. Their family had picked apples wherever they lived, so they bought suitable affordable land, planted trees, and waited four to five years for them to mature. Orchard management uses familiar corporate tools—income statements, balance sheets, and cash-flow statements—but with “a lot less zeros.” They planted too many Enterprise apples, which ripen late when too few customers remain to pick them. Now in their 14th season, the orchard has been profitable for years and can support a family, though it took time to build awareness.

The New York Fed reported that U.S. credit-card balances reached nearly $1.3 trillion in the third quarter, up more than 4% from a year earlier. Total household debt, including mortgages, auto loans, and student loans, exceeded $19 trillion, also a record, while delinquency rates rose. The report’s researchers said the figures reflect financial hardship among households, closing the episode on a consumer-credit counterpart to the persistent inflation pressures discussed at the start.