premise: Ahead of the opening, the Labor Department reported that its consumer price index (CPI) was flat in November, including the "core" index that excludes food and energy, despite expectations of a 0.2 percent increase in both figures.
  Analysts said this eases pressure on the Federal Reserve to increase interest rates and could mean a lowering of rates in the coming months.
  "Today's data certainly reinforce our view that the next move from the Fed will be to ease, and we are sticking with our timeframe for a cut at the tail end of the first quarter of 2007," said Marc Levesque, chief economics strategist at TD Securities.
  "The economy has slowed, and it now looks as inflation pressures are cooling down -- a trend that is also starting to materialize in the data on wages and unit labor costs."
  A separate report showed US industrial production rising a better-than-expected 0.2 percent.
   What is expected to happen if the economy continues to avoid the increase in the CPI?
hypothesis: increase interest rates and could mean a lowering of rates