There were few surprises in yesterday’s release of the May data on Personal Consumption Expenditure price index by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis. Publication of the Consumer Price and Producer Price Indexes earlier in June had already suggested that the PCE numbers would be benign because of the components of the CPI and PPI that feed into it. PCE prices were flat in May from April, slowing from the 0.3% rise posted the previous month. The year-over-year gain slowed from 2.7% in April to 2.6% in May. Yet, we had a senior Federal Reserve official tell us last week that it was not time to cut rates yet, and that ... (full story)