Your Weekly Journal - February 20, 2023

There were some unwelcome surprises in last week’s economic data that caused markets to reassess expectations for 2023. For example:

Inflation didn’t fall as fast as expected. Last week, the Consumer Price Index showed inflation rose 6.4 percent, year-over-year, in January. That was an improvement over December’s pace and the seventh consecutive month of falling prices, but economists expected price increases to slow more quickly, reported Megan Cassella of Barron’s.