Tom Essaye Interview on Yahoo Finance

Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi, Senior Business Reporter Brooke DiPalma, and Sevens Report Research founder Tom Essaye discuss the June Consumer Price Index (CPI) report and what it means for the outlook on inflation, the Federal Reserve, and the path forwasaysrd for interest rates.

It’s definitely been a surprise. He has definitely come out more hawkish than I think people have thought in his tone. But, you know, we also have to focus on what the Fed does and if we cut through kind of the very short statement and some of his commentary, the Fed really didn’t do and exactly what we thought they were going to do and they’re most likely going to do in July, what we think they’re going to do, which is nothing.

So certainly, I think that he is trying to use a little bit of a hawkish tone to help the market do some work for him on rates and to pressure inflation. But while the CPI print was positive, the market’s always what have you done for me lately, right?

And so now we’re looking at oil higher and even if inflation peaked in June or in May, which it probably did for the year, it still has to decline further to take rate hikes off the table for later in 2026. We’ve got to see some more continuation of these numbers in the coming months.