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		<lang class="3" colour="#000000" orgstyle="HEAD new 2" style="Headline1"  font="Blacker Pro Display" fontStyle="Regular" size="25">US consumer </lang>
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	<lang class="3" style=".Bodylaser" colour="#000000" orgstyle="FROM PAGE" font="Blacker Pro Display" fontStyle="Bold" size="7">FROM PAGE B4
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	<lang class="3" style=".Bodylaser" colour="#000000" orgstyle="BODY new" font="Blacker Pro Display" fontStyle="Regular" size="9">“Of course, even if higher gas prices don’t fully offset the OBBBA, they would still reduce real spending power compared to what was expected before the Mideast conflict began. Higher gas prices are also ​mostly felt more evenly across the income distribution.”
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	<lang class="3" style=".Bodylaser" colour="#000000" orgstyle="BODY new" font="Blacker Pro Display" fontStyle="Regular" size="9">Stocks ​on Wall Street extended their decline, with the S&amp;P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indexes dropping to more than six-month lows. The dollar was steady against a basket of currencies. US Treasury yields were mixed.
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	<lang class="3" style=".Bodylaser" colour="#000000" orgstyle="BODY new" font="Blacker Pro Display" fontStyle="Regular" size="9">The survey’s measure of consumers’ expectations for inflation over the next year jumped to 3.8 percent this month from 3.4 percent earlier in March and ​in February. Consumers’ expectations for inflation over the next five years slipped to 3.2 percent from 3.3 percent last month.
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	<lang class="3" style=".Bodylaser" colour="#000000" orgstyle="BODY new" font="Blacker Pro Display" fontStyle="Regular" size="9">The Federal Reserve left its benchmark ​overnight interest rate in the 3.50 percent -3.75 percent range this month. In updated projections released alongside the decision, US central bank policymakers anticipated higher inflation and only a single reduction in borrowing costs this year.
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	<lang class="3" style=".Bodylaser" colour="#000000" orgstyle="BODY new" font="Blacker Pro Display" fontStyle="Regular" size="9">“The evidence would appear to be for now that the inflation impact of high gas prices is expected to be temporary, but it would appear that the year-ahead expectation is set to jump above 4 percent in the preliminary April report,” said John Ryding, chief ​economic advisor at Brean Capital. 
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	<lang class="3" style=".Bodylaser" colour="#000000" orgstyle="BODY new" font="Blacker Pro Display" fontStyle="Regular" size="9">“From a Fed perspective, the majority of the (policy-setting) committee might interpret this to mean that ​rates should be held steady.”</lang>
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