Wall Street forecasters expect a massive headline March CPI print on Friday due to the rise in energy prices from the Gulf war: around +0.9% on the month, driving the y/y rate to 3.3% from 2.4%. Nobody's squinting at the right side of the decimal place when the left side moves like that. Core CPI is expected to be tamer, around 0.27% monthly. The 12-month reading climbs to 2.7% in part because a low March 2025 reading drops out. The upshot: this second-decimal-place forecasting exercise doesn't matter so much when headline CPI is behaving like this and the drivers of that move are still in motion.(Nick Timiraos)