Inflation eased in August... what's the Fed's next move?

STORY: The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, excluding the volatile food and energy components, increased 3.9% on an annual basis in August. It was the first time since June of 2021 that the annual core PCE price index was below 4.0%.

Speaking with Reuters' Lisa Bernhard, Mayfield also discussed data showing an 0.4% uptick in consumer spending for August, with some economists predicting that third quarter GDP could be as high as 4.9% - evidence of a very resilient economy despite roughly 18 months of aggressive rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

"People are just less sensitive to rising rates than they've been in past cycles," Mayfield noted. "As a consumer- facing economy, there's less sensitivity as there might have been in the past when we were more manufacturing oriented... I think with time we will feel that, but in the near term it hasn't impacted the consumer as much as it might have impacted the economy 20 or 30 years ago."