Brian Chappatta, Columnist

Inflation ‘Beat’ Expectations by Falling Short

The slowdown in the pace of price increases in August is a reprieve for U.S. consumers, investors and the Federal Reserve.

September 14, 2021 at 2:36 PM UTC

By Brian Chappatta

Brian Chappatta is managing editor of Bloomberg News' leveraged finance and distressed debt teams. He was previously managing editor and team leader of its wealth group. Before that he was a Bloomberg Opinion markets and finance columnist and a bonds reporter for Bloomberg News.

Consumers and investors could use a little cool-down. — Consumers and investors could use a little cool-down.
Photographer: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

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Bond traders like to be as efficient as possible when quickly analyzing incoming economic data. Often, the reaction boils down to two four-letter words: “beat” or “miss.”

For something like the August jobs report released earlier this month, it’s intuitive enough: U.S. employers added 235,000 workers, much lower than the estimated 733,000. That’s a miss — everyone can agree that more hiring is better than less. A higher number is almost always preferred for consumer survey data, gauges of manufacturing activity and retail sales.