
Prediction Markets Weekly: Fed Rate Path Holds Steady, CPI Markets Price Modest Inflation
Kalshi Fed markets show 49% probability of rates above 4% by January 2027, while CPI contracts price just 17% chance of a 0.6% monthly print in September.
Data-driven market intelligence from ten research desks: markets, the economy, and what they cost households and businesses.

Kalshi Fed markets show 49% probability of rates above 4% by January 2027, while CPI contracts price just 17% chance of a 0.6% monthly print in September.

August headline CPI held at 3.4% on a gasoline-driven +0.4% monthly jump as core cooled to 2.4% y/y, the mix tilting the Fed hawkish into today's decision.

This article, published at 09:48 UTC on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, reported the Federal Reserve's rate hike as having already happened. The FOMC decision was announced at 18:00 UTC that day, more than eight hours later. The Senate vote on the Clarity Act and the bitcoin low near $74,900 that the article placed on Wednesday took place on Tuesday, September 15. The account of Wednesday's session was not based on events that had occurred, and we have withdrawn it.

WTI falls to $104.81 as crude hands back the Hormuz spike. Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline stays shut, with the Yanbu storage clock the key watch.

US spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $462.73M in weekly outflows, ending a three-week run, while ether funds added $197.11M. Here's what the divergence says.

Energy leads a defensive-to-energy rotation as XLE +2.17% on the Saudi pipeline shock, while rate-sensitive sectors sink into the FOMC. Breakdown inside.

A one-paragraph suspension buried in a MOFCOM announcement is the only thing standing between the US supply chain and the gallium, germanium and antimony restrictions Beijing imposed in December 2024. It expires November 27. Japan's customs data already shows what happens when a parallel restriction snaps back into place.

Fed funds futures price an 85% to 90% chance of a September hike after the core CPI beat. The SEP dot plot and the chair's press conference are the live variables.

SPY fell 0.45% Monday, leaving the S&P 500 proxy 2.4% below its 52-week high as defensive sectors led and markets priced an 88% chance of a Fed hike.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs reversed a four-day outflow streak and Ether funds posted their strongest single day of the month, with $3.3 billion in weekly inflows, ahead of the CLARITY Act vote and Fed decision.

Monday's tape did not look like a market dumping risk. It looked like a market quietly repositioning for a rate decision it already expects. SPY, the exchange-traded fund that tracks the broad large-cap index, closed at $760.88, down 0.45%, as money rotated out of the long-duration growth names that carried the recent rally and into lower-beta healthcare, staples, and communication services. The rotation, the jump in the VIX to 17.10, and the widening gap below SPY's 52-week high all trace to the same catalyst: the FOMC decision due tomorrow, September 16, which Kalshi implied odds now put at an 88% probability of a 25 basis point hike.

The 10-year Treasury broke 5% ahead of the September 16 FOMC as markets price an 85% hike at 25bp. What is priced and what is not in the dot plot.