July 2026 CPI printed 3.4% — every forecaster graded

The July 2026 Consumer Price Index printed 3.4% year over year on August 12, 2026 (prior 3.5%, Street consensus 3.4%, surprise 0.00pp). Closest on the headline: Street consensus. Nowflation’s sealed forecast was 3.42% — a miss of +0.021pp, 3 of 5. Core CPI 2.5% (consensus 2.5%, prior 2.6%; closest Street consensus). Headline MoM 0.1% vs 0.1% expected.

Headline CPI YoY: printed 3.4%

ForecasterCallPrintedMiss
Nowflation Forecast3.42%3.4%+0.021pp
Nowflation Model3.46%3.4%+0.060pp
Cleveland Fed3.42%3.4%+0.020pp
Street consensus (closest)3.4%3.4%0.000pp
Kalshi market-implied3.35%3.4%−0.053pp

Core CPI YoY: printed 2.5%

ForecasterCallPrintedMiss
Nowflation Forecast2.51%2.5%+0.009pp
Nowflation Model2.52%2.5%+0.016pp
Cleveland Fed2.52%2.5%+0.020pp
Street consensus (closest)2.5%2.5%0.000pp
Kalshi market-implied2.43%2.5%−0.069pp

Headline CPI MoM: printed 0.1%

ForecasterCallPrintedMiss
Nowflation Forecast0.10%0.1%−0.004pp
Nowflation Model0.10%0.1%+0.004pp
Cleveland Fed0.09%0.1%−0.010pp
Street consensus (closest)0.1%0.1%0.000pp
Kalshi market-implied0.09%0.1%−0.014pp

Core CPI MoM: printed 0.2%

ForecasterCallPrintedMiss
Nowflation Forecast0.20%0.2%+0.004pp
Nowflation Model0.18%0.2%−0.022pp
Cleveland Fed0.21%0.2%+0.010pp
Street consensus (closest)0.2%0.2%0.000pp

Pre-registration receipt

Status locked (immutable), written September 1, 2026 at 5:23 PM ET. scoreboard rows frozen at grading time (INSERT OR IGNORE — never rewritten by later revisions from any source). Nowflation CPI Forecast on the receipt: 3.42% (reported 3.4%). SHA-256: e454dbe74fc9042c04343f938c15708f04c848c42869ac932a35ff11d4026e82. Receipt JSON · all receipts.

The Gauge stepping

The Gauge read 3.17% on the eve of the print and 3.19% the day after (+0.020pp), its gap to the printed number moving from −0.23pp to −0.21pp; the CPI Tracker 3.43% → 3.46%. The Gauge is a measurement of today, not a call on the print: on release day the components that hold an official subindex step to the new print while the live components keep moving.

Kalshi ladder

Market-implied mean on August 11, 2026: 3.37%. Ladder strikes at or below 3.4% settled YES; strikes above 3.4% settled NO. The market-implied mean on the eve was 3.37%, -0.03pp from the print. Implied mean = survival-curve integration of the “above X%” ladder mid-prices at the print’s 0.1pp granularity (engine connectors/kalshi.js).

Method

Before the print: every call as it stands on the tape, sealed into the receipt the evening before release (SHA-256 of the receipt JSON with its sha256 field removed). After the print: the scoreboard rows frozen at grading time — later revisions by any source never touch them. Graded against the BLS first release (YoY on the NSA index, MoM seasonally adjusted, one decimal). Signed error = forecast − actual.

Scoreboard · July 2026 preview · compare the forecasters · print day, live · dashboard.