A closely watched measure of US inflation will probably illustrate more of the moderate price growth that the Federal Reserve wants to see sustained. The consumer price index is projected to rise 0.2% in July for a second month after excluding food and energy costs, marking the smallest back-to-back gains in 2 1/2 years. Economists and Fed officials view this core measure as a better indicator of underlying inflation. Compared with a year earlier, the Labor Department’s underlying gauge is forecast to rise 4.8%, according to the median projection in a Bloomberg survey of economists ahead of Thursday’s report. While ... (full story)