Don’t expect the Federal Reserve to start making big promises about further monetary easing after October’s reading of the consumer price index matched market expectations but showed plenty of price stiffness, said Steven Blitz, chief economist of TS Lombard. in a Wednesday afternoon paper.

“The October CPI message to the Fed is being taken lightly when guiding for future rate cuts,” Blitz wrote, noting that was also Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s message at last week’s news conference. There was nothing in the data to change Powell’s opinion, Blitz said.

“Keep in mind that prices don’t typically fall in a full-employment economy,” he said. This is reflected in TS Lombard’s CPI Diffusion Index (see chart above), which is running at around 50% – meaning half of the sub-indices have three-month inflation rates above their 12-month rate in while the other half have the opposite. This is not particularly unusual, Blitz said, but added that it is not a scenario involving disinflation.