March's inflation numbers tell one key story: the surge in energy prices driven by the Iran war, Axios' Courtenay Brown writes.

• Big price spikes in other categories — airfares, groceries, etc. — will likely follow as the energy shock reverberates through the economy.

📈 By the numbers: Overall inflation rose 0.9% last month, the largest jump since June 2022.

• Gas prices surged 21%. That's their biggest monthly gain in nearly 60 years, accounting for nearly three-quarters of the total rise.

Core inflation — which strips out food and energy prices — rose just 0.2%, the same pace as the previous month.

⚡️ Energy shocks take time to have a broader effect.

• This one mostly hasn't registered yet in other, non-energy industries — but they're bracing for impact.

✈️ Airfares surged 2.7% in March, after February's 1.4% increase. More price hikes are likely amid skyrocketing jet fuel costs.

• Food prices were flat last month, though farmers and food manufacturers are warning about fertilizer shortages as the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed.

🍳 There's one bit of good news: Egg prices are down about 60% from this time last year as the bird flu crisis fades.

• Bloomberg's BEC index — that's bacon, egg and cheese, for all the non-New Yorkers out there — fell to $2.65 in March, down nearly 20% year over year.
• But coffee is up about 30%, fueled by tariffs and climate change.

The bottom line: The squeeze on Americans' budgets is just starting, with huge uncertainty about whether price increases will lead to less spending and an economic slowdown.

• Go deeper.

Americans are spending an average of $158/month on their home electric bills, Alex Fitzpatrick and Erin Davis report based on Heatmap News estimates.

• 💵 Nantucket County, Mass. ($296); San Francisco County, Calif. ($282) and Nobles County, Minn. ($273) had the highest estimated average monthly electric bills in the continental U.S. in 2025.

Counties in Alabama and Texas dominate the top of the most-expensive list, broadly speaking.

• A new Alabama measure will freeze base rates until 2029, among other reforms to the state's utilities regulator.

👀 What we're watching: Whether efforts to contain energy prices — like forcing tech companies to foot the bill for their AI power needs — actually work.

• Go deeper.

1. 🪂 Artemis II's splashdown is set for just after 8 p.m. ET tonight off the coast of San Diego. How to watch.
2. 🥃 Sazerac, the maker of Buffalo Trace bourbon and cinnamon-flavored Fireball, has reportedly made a takeover approach to Brown-Forman, maker of Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey. Go deeper.
3. ⚓️ The U.S. Navy is decommissioning the USS Boise, an attack sub that has long sat idle and become synonymous with the service's maintenance backlog. More from Axios' Colin Demarest.

A letter written by a Titanic survivor just five days before it sank is on public display for the first time, Axios Denver's Esteban L. Hernandez reports.

• American writer Archibald Gracie wrote in a note dated April 10, 1912: "It is a fine ship this, but I shall await my journey's end before I pass judgment on her."

📝 Gracie's note is making its historic debut at Denver's Molly Brown House Museum, alongside other Titanic relics.

• Margaret Brown — aka the "Unsinkable Molly Brown" — was also among the survivors.

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