"It does open the door to a potential rate cut later in the year. It will take a few more readings indicating that inflation is coming down for the Fed to act."

The value of U.S. retail purchases, unadjusted for inflation, was little changed from a month earlier, and gains in prior months were lower than previously thought.

The investment firm is among 600 organizations worldwide whose pension funds and benefits plan providers had participants' data breached recently.

"These days we mostly care about what the PPI means for the Fed's preferred PCE deflator measure of core consumer price inflation. In that respect, April's news was mixed but, on balance, encouraging."

How purchasers should look at federal income tax aspects of tax due diligence in preparation for an M&A transaction.

"The DOJ and FTC's misguided suit against RealPage is not supported by antitrust jurisprudence, and $7 trillion in economic growth is on the line."

Why checks and balances of the courts, as well as SEC enforcement, are critical to maintaining the strength of U.S. markets.

"If inflation started to tick back down or we saw some marked weakening in the labor market, then that might cause us to cut back on interest rates. Or, if we get convinced that inflation is entrenched at 3 percent and we need to go higher, we will do that."