<p>Inflation cooled more than expected in October, but consumer prices remained near a multi-decade high, continuing to squeeze millions of U.S. households and small businesses.</p> <div class="ad-container desktop ad-h-50 ad-w-300"> <div data-rendered-size="728×90" data-ad-slot-rendered="1" data-google-query-id="CL_6r_Xso_sCFVFScgodPpcHpA" data-ad-init="1" data-ad-lz="1" class="ad gam"> <div></div> </div> </div> <p>The Labor Department said Thursday that the consumer price index, a broad measure of the price for everyday goods including gasoline, groceries and rents, rose 0.4% in October from the previous month. Prices climbed 7.7% on an annual basis.&nbsp;</p> <p>Those figures were both lower than the 8% headline figure and 0.5% monthly increase forecast by Refinitiv economists, a potentially reassuring sign for the Federal Reserve as it tries to tame runaway inflation with a series of aggressive interest rate hikes. It marked the slowest annual inflation rate since January.&nbsp;</p> <p>In another sign that suggests underlying&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/category/inflation" _mce_href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/category/inflation"><span style="text-decoration: underline;" _mce_style="text-decoration: underline;">inflationary pressures</span></a>&nbsp;in the economy are starting to slow, core prices – &nbsp;which strip out the more volatile measurements of food and energy – climbed 0.3% in October from the previous month, down from 0.6% in September. From the same time last year, core prices jumped 6.3%.</p>