New home construction and manufacturing came in softer than expected, while retail sales fell and underlying inflation took its first step down in six months.
"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.
"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."
"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."
