WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s punishing inflation rate likely kept simmering in October, giving the Federal Reserve little cause to ease up in its drive to slow price increases by steadily raising interest rates. The Labor Department is expected to report that consumer prices jumped 8% from 12 months earlier and by a sharp 0.6% from September to October. A separate measure called core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, is expected to have surged 6.5% in the past year and 0.5% from September to October. Like many other countries, the United States is struggling to control inflation, which is pressuring millions of households and dimming the outlook for the economy.