U.S. consumer prices in September showed a steep upward trend, exceeding expectations due to soaring energy prices.

As inflationary pressures show signs of spreading beyond the energy sector, expectations are growing that pressure on the Federal Reserve to implement additional benchmark interest rate hikes will also intensify.

The U.S. Department of Labor announced on the 14th local time that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for September rose 3.7% compared to the same month last year.

This slightly exceeds the 3.6% expert forecast compiled by Dow Jones.

Compared to the previous month, it rose 0.6%, recording the steepest upward trend in five months since last April.

Core CPI, which excludes volatile energy and food, rose 2.6% from the same month last year and 0.3% from the previous month.

Each figure is 0.1 percentage point higher than expert forecasts of 2.5% and 0.2%, respectively.

The U.S. Department of Labor explained that gasoline prices rose 9.1% in September, accounting for more than half of the total monthly increase.

Gasoline prices rose 34.2% compared to the previous year.

Fuel oil jumped 15.3% from the previous month and 74.2% from the previous year.

Energy commodity prices, combining gasoline and fuel oil, rose 9.3% from the previous month and 35.3% from the previous year.

Even excluding food and energy, overall prices for major services and goods showed an upward trend, including airfares (1.2%), used cars and trucks (0.7%), education (0.6%), and apparel (0.3%).

Bloomberg diagnosed that inflationary pressures are appearing very broadly not only in energy prices but across the entire economy.

Financial markets also reacted immediately as the inflation indicators came in higher than expected.

As of 9:28 AM Eastern Time, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note stood at 5.304%, up 8.7 basis points (1 bp = 0.01 percentage point) from the previous session.

The 30-year Treasury yield rose 5.3 basis points to 5.616%.

The 2-year Treasury yield, which is sensitive to monetary policy, jumped 12.3 basis points to 4.916%.

Consequently, the possibility of additional Federal Reserve rate hikes has sharply re-emerged.

According to the CME Group's FedWatch, the federal funds futures market significantly revised up the probability of an October rate hike from 22.1% the previous day to 51.5%.

Amid growing concerns over ingrained inflation, projections suggest that soaring living costs will emerge as a major issue ahead of the November midterm elections.