Wednesday''s Market Minute: The Fed is Right to Sink the Stock Market It’s looking like one of the biggest mistakes in the inflation analysis this year was the conviction with which many said it was primarily a supply-chain problem. Crude oil is down 35% from its high and is below where it traded before Russia invaded Ukraine seven months ago. Same with wheat and lumber. The further we get from the original COVID shutdowns, the more the supply chain unbuckles. China has been a big laggard, but even the closures this past quarter weren’t worse than in 2020. Despite these improvements, inflation is stuck above 8%. Supply chain pressures have eased, yet inflation hasn''t meaningfully moved. So the sticky part of inflation looks to come more from elevated demand. This rings true in the robust employment picture as well as the details from consumer goods companies like Nike (NYSE: NKE ) and Target (NYSE: TGT ) that now have too-large inventories. The issue is not that they don''t have the supplies to deliver the goods, the issue is that … Full story available on Benzinga.