📰 FOOD PRICES COULD PUSH UP CPI Food prices are often one of the more volatile components of the headline CPI number, and they have the potential to give the December numbers due at 8:30 a.m. ET a push higher, economist Troy Ludtka of SMBC Nikko Securities writes. He is concerned that the bird flu outbreak is causing production shortfalls that could show up in December shelf prices to a greater extent than analysts have figured. The epidemic wiped out 20 million egg-laying birds in 4Q alone, he notes, citing USDA data.