The perception of inflation slowing on a month to month basis is an illusion caused by the release of oil from the us strategic reserve [1].
Just like QE is good as a short term solution to economic problems releasing strategic oil reserves to push down inflation (as it relates to oil) is a short-term fix that will likely exacerbated the problem in the medium to long term.
Release from the strategic reserve is more PR/leverage/signal than anything. First, it takes time to actually do the release. Second, 180M barrels is nothing when then US uses ~20M barrels/day.
So it's more of a signal that the US is about to start swinging a bigger stick to get oil production up, than it is an illusion.
Just like QE is good as a short term solution to economic problems releasing strategic oil reserves to push down inflation (as it relates to oil) is a short-term fix that will likely exacerbated the problem in the medium to long term.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-strategic-oil-sal...