http://profitableinvestingtips.com/stock-investing-tips/what-does-increasing-inflation-mean-for-stocks What Does Increasing Inflation Mean for Stocks? Prices of goods and services are inching up and according to The Wall Street Journal the Fed is not going to get in the way of a little inflation. Inflation has begun picking up, and it looks as if the Federal Reserve is going to let it keep climbing. The Labor Department on Tuesday said that consumer prices rose by 0.3% in September from August, putting them 1.5% above their year-earlier level. With gasoline prices stabilizing, annual inflation ought to push above 2% on the year within a couple of months. Core prices, which exclude food and energy costs, have been there for a while. Last month they were up 2.2% on the year. The worry on the mind of Wall Street for the last couple of years has been that in order to stay ahead of inflation the U.S. Federal Reserve will start raising interest rates and high interest rates would hurt stocks. It appears that the Fed might not be as worried about inflation as we all thought. Assuming that the Fed does not raise rates very fast and inflation goes up, what does increasing inflation mean for stocks? How Inflation Affects Stocks The effect of inflation on stocks is that profits and prices eventually decline. Investopedia discusses inflation’s impact on stock returns. Rising inflation has an insidious effect: input prices are higher, consumers can purchase fewer goods, revenues and profits decline, and the economy slows for a time until a steady state is reached.