Markets may judge next week if Fed is making the right move cutting rates

Next week's inflation data could confirm whether or not the Federal Reserve is making the right move in cutting interest rates this fall. The personal consumption expenditures price index is widely known as the Fed's preferred inflation measure, and next Friday economists expect the August edition will show that inflation is actually headed higher. That would match the Fed's own updated economic projections, which on Wednesday showed slightly faster economic growth and modestly higher inflation in the coming year. Wall Street may be able to take slightly hotter inflation in stride, so long as it doesn't change the narrative for lower rates at the Fed's policy meetings in October and December. Markets were last pricing in two quarter-point rate cuts at those meetings, in line with what the