News Snapshot:
The pulse of US inflation likely continued to slow at the start of the year, helping to feed expectations that the Federal Reserve will find interest-rate cuts more palatable in the coming months. The core consumer price index, a measure that excludes food and fuel for a better picture of underlying inflation, is seen increasing 3.7% in January from a year earlier. That would mark the smallest year-over-year advance since April 2021, and underscore the inroads Fed Chair Jerome Powell and his colleagues have made in beating back inflation. The overall CPI probably rose less than 3% for the first...