Major U.S. indices surged Wednesday after consumer inflation came in lower than expected, and major banks posted strong fourth-quarter earnings. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Consumer Price Index increased 0.

Consumer inflation increased 2.9% in 2024, which is above the Federal Reserve's goal of 2%, but wages overall more than kept up with higher prices.

Consumer price growth ticked up in December, a sign President-elect Donald Trump will inherit the inflation issues that dogged the Biden administration as he re-takes the White House next week.

U.S. consumer prices increased by the most in nine months in December amid higher costs for energy goods, pointing to still-elevated inflation that aligns with the Federal Reserve's projections for fewer interest rate cuts this year.

Shelter costs were 4.6% higher in December than a year earlier, and they account for more than a third of the consumer price index.

The increase in the consumer price index for the 25-county region that includes Long Island was fueled in part by the cost of natural gas, electricity and housing.

This contradicts months of claims from Jerome Powell who has insisted that price inflation was rapidly returning to the Fed's two-percent price inflation goal.

Egg prices have risen across the nation by roughly 38 percent over the past year. That brought the average cost of a dozen eggs to 3.65 U.S. dollars in November, from 2.14 dollars during the same month a year ago, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index data.

The USDA projected that New York’s average egg price would stay high at $4.80 in the early part of the year, but gradually decrease to $2.35 per dozen by the end of 2025, up from an earlier forecast of $2.10 per dozen, CNBC reported.

It was one of several fountains installed around that time — at train stations, the city Market House, Paschal Square  — that disappeared.

Op-ed views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author. The Bureau of Labor Statistics just released the monthly increase in the Consumer Price Index for […]