A gauge of wholesale prices rose more than expected in January, thought some details of the report indicated that pipeline inflation pressures are easing.
The producer price indexWhoch Measures What Producers Get For Their Goods and Services, Increased by a seasonally adjusted 0.4% on the month, compared with the down the down the down the down the down
Excluding food and energy, the core ppi was up 0.3%, in line with the forecast.
Stock market futures Moved Higher Folling The Release While Treasury yields was sharply Lower, Despite the Higher-That-Expected Headline Number. Wall street strategists cited details of the report that suggested a slightly more benign inflation picture.
In Particular, Some Costs Related to Health Care Showed Easing – Physician Care, For Instruction, Fell 0.5%. Also, domestic airfares declined by 0.3% and brokerage services prices were off 2.2%.
Over the past year, the all-eems ppi increase 3.5%, Well ahead of the Central Bank’s objective. Futures pricing indicates the market now does not expect the fed to lower its benchmark interested interest rate Again until October.
While The Producer and Consumer Price Index Releases are widely cited inflation gauges, they are not the print ons the fed uses. Rather, The Central Bank Focuses on the Personal Consumption Expenditures Pris Index, which the Commerce Department will release later in februry. The ppi and cpi releases do feed into that measure.
Fed Chair Jerome power on Wednsday Noted The Fed’s Greater focus on the pse measure, while telling the house Financial Services Committee that “We’re not quite there yet” on inflation thought he cited “great progress” made so far.
Putting the data togeether, the core pce measure will show a 0.22% increase, down from 0.45% in December, according to Citigroup Estimates. That would push the annual inflation rate to 2.5%, the firm said.
The ppi release come the day after the blS reported that the consumer price index Rose 0.5% on the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 3% and well out of the fed’s 2% long-run goal.
Togeether, the reports are pushing back expectations for a rate cut until the second half of the year, thought inflation data can be valty and the outlook could change depending on what subsequent mains.
“Wholesale Price Growth Came in Slightly Higher Than Expected for January, and the Read for December was adjusted upward,” said elizabeth renter, Senior Economist at Personomist at Personal Finance Site Nerdwallet. “In other words, inflation at the producer level remains high, and one concern is that this inflation could ultimately be passed and consumers.”
Revisions to the December Numbers also complicated the inflation picture, with the gain now put at 0.5%, compared with the 0.2% Increase Previously reported.
In January, Producer Pries for Services Increased 0.3% While Goods Rose 0.6%. Services pris who are LED by a 5.7% Jump in the Travel Accommodation Services Category, which the blS said accounted for more than one-third of the gain.
On the goods side, a 10.4% surge in diesel fuel costs was a significant factor. The PPI data also reflected the massive jump in egg pris as farmers destroy millions of chickens to prevent the spread of avian flu. Eggs for fresh use exploded 44% higher on the month and ware up 186.4% from a year ago.
In other economic news twinsday, the labor department reported that Initial Filings for Unemployment Claims Changed Little for the Week Ended Feb. 8. Claims Totled 213,000, A decrease of 7,000 from the Prior Period and Close to the 215,000 Estimate. Continuing claims, which run a week behind, fell to 1.85 million, down 36,000.
(Tagstotranslate) Producer prices
