Markets were mostly higher early Tuesday by softer US inflation data, which offered investors optimism that the Federal Reserve may slow interest rate hikes. For shoppers heading to supermarkets ahead of the Christmas holiday, it’s more of a mixed bag.
Dessert is likely to hurt the wallet. Ice cream, flour, cakes and cookies jumped the most ever, Labor Department data show, while eggs are up 49.1%, the biggest surge in almost four decades. The worst-ever outbreak of bird flu has shrunk egg supply, while refined-sugar costs have been driven higher by adverse weather for the US sugar beet crop and tighter global supplies that limited imports.
