Daily briefing · September 18, 2026

Today's Economic Brief

The latest official readings show consumer-price growth at 3.7%, unemployment at 4.1%, annualized real GDP growth at 1.5%. New releases and revisions can change that picture.

What changed

FRED Blog · Sep 17, 2026

Using options prices to measure financial risk : The Kansas City Fed Policy Rate Skew

The takeaway The Kansas City Fed uses options prices to measure how financial markets perceive the balance of risks for future short-term interest rates: a.k.a., the KC Policy Rate Skew. The data Options are publicly traded fin...

Read the primary source

Federal Reserve · Sep 16, 2026

Federal Reserve issues FOMC statement

Read the primary source

Federal Reserve · Sep 16, 2026

Federal Reserve Board and Federal Open Market Committee release economic projections from the September 15-16 FOMC meeting

Read the primary source

Why it matters

Consumer-price growth is 3.7%, up 1.0 percentage points from Jul 2025.
Unemployment rate is 4.1%, down 0.2 percentage points from Jul 2025.
Federal funds rate is 3.63%, down 0.7 percentage points from Sep 2025.

These comparisons describe published observations; they do not assign causes.

What comes next

Fri, Sep 18 at 10:00 AM ETState Employment and Unemployment (Monthly)BLS
Thu, Sep 24 at 8:30 AM ETU.S. International Transactions and Investment Position, 2nd Quarter 2026BEA
Thu, Sep 24 at 10:00 AM ETEmployee TenureBLS
Thu, Sep 24 at 10:00 AM ETJob Flexibilities and Work SchedulesBLS
Fri, Sep 25 at 10:00 AM ETEmployee Benefits in the United StatesBLS