Next CPI report — US CPI release date & time

What is the CPI report?

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures how much the prices of a fixed basket of goods and services — food, rent, fuel, cars, medical care, airfares and hundreds more — changed for urban US consumers. It is published monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and is the most watched inflation number in the world.

The report has two headline figures, each shown month-on-month (m/m) and year-on-year (y/y). Headline CPI includes everything. Core CPI strips out food and energy, which swing with weather and oil prices, so it gives a cleaner read of underlying inflation. Markets usually react more to core m/m, because a 0.1 percentage-point miss there is a big deal in annual terms.

The Federal Reserve's own target is defined on a different measure — the PCE price index — but CPI arrives about two weeks earlier, so it is the first full picture of inflation each month and the one that moves price.

When is CPI released — and what time is that for you?

CPI is released at 8:30 AM Eastern Time, usually between the 10th and the 15th of the month, covering the month before. Unlike the jobs report there is no weekday rule — the BLS publishes a fixed calendar each year, which is what the schedule above is taken from.

8:30 AM ET is 12:30 UTC in US summer time and 13:30 UTC in winter. Around the March and October/November clock changes the US and Europe are briefly out of step, so the release can land an hour earlier than usual for European traders. The countdown converts it to your own clock automatically.

• New York: 8:30 AM
• London: 1:30 PM
• Central Europe: 2:30 PM
• Singapore / Hong Kong: 8:30–9:30 PM
• Sydney: 11:30 PM–12:30 AM

Why CPI moves forex, gold and indices

Inflation decides what the Federal Reserve does next. A hotter-than-expected CPI makes rate cuts less likely or hikes more likely, which usually lifts the US dollar and Treasury yields and weighs on gold. A cooler print does the opposite.

CPI is also one of the few releases where stock indices react in a reliable direction: hot inflation is usually bad for the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500, because higher rates lower the value of future earnings. That makes CPI days especially volatile for index traders.

As with every release, the move comes from the surprise against the forecast, not the level. When inflation is the market's main worry, a 0.1-point miss in core CPI can move EUR/USD by more than the jobs report does.

How traders handle the CPI release

• Know which number matters: look at core m/m first — it is usually what the market is trading.
• Expect wide spreads: liquidity thins in the minutes before 8:30 AM ET; stops can slip.
• Read it with the Fed: CPI matters most in the week or two before an FOMC meeting, when it can swing the odds of a rate move.
• Watch the follow-through: the first move often extends through the US open at 9:30 AM ET as equity traders react.

A free alert a few minutes ahead gives you time to close, hedge or prepare orders instead of reacting to the spike. For strategies, read trading CPI releases.

CPI, PCE and PPI: which inflation number matters when

Three US inflation reports land every month, and they do different jobs. CPI comes first, around mid-month, and measures what consumers pay. PPI — the Producer Price Index — usually follows within a day or two and measures what businesses receive for their output; traders read it as an early hint of where consumer prices are heading, and as an input into the next figure. PCE — the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index — arrives at the end of the month and is the measure the Federal Reserve actually targets at 2%.

Because the components overlap, economists can estimate PCE quite accurately once CPI and PPI are out. That is why CPI moves markets the most: it is the surprise, while PCE is often close to what was already calculated. The exception is when CPI and PPI pull in different directions — then PCE week matters more than usual.

Inside CPI, watch the pieces that drive the core figure: shelter (rent and owners' equivalent rent, about a third of the index), services excluding housing, and used cars, which can swing core by a tenth on their own. A headline miss explained by gasoline prices is usually shrugged off; a core miss driven by services is not.

Backtest your CPI plan first

FxBacktest replays real historical charts bar by bar with the economic calendar on the chart, so you can jump to past CPI mornings and practise exactly what you would do — flat into the number, trade the first pullback, or ride the US-open follow-through — on EUR/USD, gold or the Nasdaq 100, with spread and commission included. A year of CPI reports takes an afternoon.