With June's inflation reading coming in hotter than the month prior, the Fed is under renewed pressure to maintain its current target range for the federal funds rate. Analysts now see little chance of a rate cut in the near term. That means HELOC borrowers are unlikely to see significant rate drops anytime soon.

UK inflation unexpectedly rose to an 18-month high of 3.6 per cent in June, in a setback for the Bank of England as it tries to cut interest rates to support the country’s slowing economy. Wednesday’s figure from the Office for National Statistics exceeded the prediction of analysts polled by Reuters that inflation would remain at May’s level of 3.

Rising prices across an array of goods from coffee to audio equipment to home furnishings pulled inflation higher.

What is clear is that the current 4.33% median Fed funds target rate remains well above the inflation trend. Even after the acceleration in consumer prices in June, the policy rate is roughly 1.4 percentage points above headline CPI’s one-year change – close to the biggest gap post-pandemic.