They said their findings, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, might help persuade doctors to ease off on the antibiotics they prescribe for patients in the hospital.

If so, firms like Capital One could look forward to sharply higher earnings as lower defaults would allow lenders to ease off on the expense of building their loan-loss reserves.

The annualised rate of inflation over the past three months is probably a little hot for the Fed's taste, but it also believes that as commodity prices level off upward pressure on prices will ease.