---
title: "August inflation held at 3.4% after a revision erased July's 3.7%"
url: "https://etf.net/news/august-inflation-held-at-3-4-after-a-revision-erased-july-s-3-7-2026-09-30"
published_at: "2026-09-30T20:57:10.301Z"
updated_at: "2026-09-30T20:57:10.301Z"
byline: "ETF.net Research"
---

# August inflation held at 3.4% after a revision erased July's 3.7%

The Bureau of Economic Analysis put August inflation at 3.4% on Wednesday, September 30, the same rate it now shows for July, and the S&P 500 fund closed down 0.2%.

By ETF.net Research. Published Sep 30, 2026.

August inflation did not fall. The Bureau of Economic Analysis said prices of what households buy, the measure the Federal Reserve watches, were up **3.4%** from a year earlier.

The July report, published on August 26, had put that rate at 3.7%, and the rate excluding food and energy at 3.3%. Against those figures, August looked like a drop.

It was not. Wednesday's release revised past figures back to January 2021. July is now 3.4% as well, and excluding food and energy the rate is 3.0% in both months.

On Tuesday, New York Fed President John Williams was still using 3.7%.

"At 3.7 percent, inflation is unquestionably too high," he said in Buffalo. That 3.7% was the same measure.

The pace inside the month did not slow either. Prices rose 0.3% in August after 0.1% in July.

Households were not cutting back. Adjusted for inflation, spending rose 0.6%, while after-tax income, adjusted the same way, was unchanged.

SPY, the fund that holds the S&P 500, was up 0.7% at the day's high and closed down 0.2%. That was its third down session in a row. RSP, which holds those same companies in equal amounts, fell 0.7%, so the typical company fell more than SPY.

XLK, which holds the technology companies in the S&P 500, rose 0.6%. It was the only one of the 11 big U.S. sector funds to close higher.

Chart: Technology was the **only** sector fund higher

CME FedWatch, which reads interest-rate futures, put the chance of a quarter-point rise in October at 35%, down from 51% a day earlier.

TLT, the fund that holds U.S. Treasurys maturing in more than 20 years, closed at $77.78, down 0.6%. It touched its lowest price in 52 weeks. The decline was the seventh in a row, back to Tuesday, September 22. Over five sessions the price is down 3.3%.

Chart: TLT posted a **seventh** straight decline

The 3.4% figure was a drop only against July's old 3.7%. That 3.7% is gone.

Source: etf.net, https://etf.net/news/august-inflation-held-at-3-4-after-a-revision-erased-july-s-3-7-2026-09-30. Please cite the page URL.