Fed, Wall Street ‘in a brawl’ over inflation cure

The Federal Reserve and the stock market are butting heads over the central bank’s efforts to fight inflation.

Stocks capped a steep two-day sell-off on Friday, wiping out gains from a rally earlier in the week driven by hopeful economic news. Inflation as measured by the consumer price index had fallen for the fifth straight month — and far more than analysts expected — according to data released right before the Fed was set to slow down its interest rate hikes.

While the Fed did end up boosting rates by...