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Wholesale prices rose 0.2% in June, slightly hotter than expected

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Wholesale prices rose 0.2% in June, slightly hotter than expected

A measure of wholesale prices rose more than expected in June as Wall Street assesses when the Federal Reserve will feel comfortable cutting interest rates.

The producer price index climbed 0.2% last month, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones were expecting a 0.1% increase for the index. The PPI is now up 2.6% over the past year.

The PPI is a gauge of prices that producers can get for their goods and services in the open market. In June, a rise in the price for services offset a decline for goods.

The reading is an increase from the May number, which was also revised higher. Friday’s report said that the index was unchanged in May as compared with a decline of 0.2% in the original release.

The hotter-than-expected PPI reading runs counter to recent data that shows inflation declining, though economists and investors tend to put more weight on the consumer-focused inflation readings.

Friday’s report comes after the June consumer price index came in cooler than expected on Thursday. The CPI actually showed that headline inflation declined on a monthly basis and now sits at 3% year over year.

The central bank’s next policy meeting is at the end of July, where it is widely expected to hold rates steady. Traders have increasingly dialed in on the September meeting as the likely time for the first rate cut.

The Fed’s preferred inflation reading is the personal consumption expenditures price index. The June PCE data is slated for release on July 26.

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Economics

UK inflation September 2024

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The Canary Wharf business district is seen in the distance behind autumnal leaves on October 09, 2024 in London, United Kingdom.

Dan Kitwood | Getty Images News | Getty Images

LONDON — Inflation in the U.K. dropped sharply to 1.7% in September, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected the headline rate to come in at a higher 1.9% for the month, in the first dip of the print below the Bank of England’s 2% target since April 2021.

Inflation has been hovering around that level for the last four months, and came in at 2.2% in August.

Core inflation, which excludes energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, came in at 3.2% for the month, down from 3.6% in August and below the 3.4% forecast of a Reuters poll.

Price rises in the services sector, the dominant portion of the U.K. economy, eased significantly to 4.9% last month from 5.6% in August, now hitting its lowest rate since May 2022.

Core and services inflation are key watch points for Bank of England policymakers as they mull whether to cut interest rates again at their November meeting.

As of Wednesday morning, market pricing put an 80% probability on a November rate cut ahead of the latest inflation print. Analysts on Tuesday said lower wage growth reported by the ONS this week had supported the case for a cut. The BOE reduced its key rate by 25 basis points in August before holding in September.

Within the broader European region, inflation in the euro zone dipped below the European Central Bank’s 2% target last month, hitting 1.8%, according to the latest data.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated shortly.

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Economics

Why Larry Hogan’s long-odds bid for a Senate seat matters

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FEW REPUBLICAN politicians differ more from Donald Trump than Larry Hogan, the GOP Senate candidate in Maryland. Consider the contrasts between a Trump rally and a Hogan event. Whereas Mr Trump prefers to take the stage and riff in front of packed arenas, Mr Hogan spent a recent Friday night chatting with locals at a waterfront wedding venue in Baltimore County. Mr Hogan’s stump speech, at around ten minutes, felt as long as a single off-script Trump tangent. Mr Trump delights in defying his advisers; Mr Hogan fastidiously sticks to talking points about bipartisanship, good governance and overcoming tough odds. Put another way, Mr Hogan’s campaign is something Mr Trump is rarely accused of being: boring. But it is intriguing.

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Economics

Polarisation by education is remaking American politics

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DEPENDING ON where exactly you find yourself, western Pennsylvania can feel Appalachian, Midwestern, booming or downtrodden. No matter where, however, this part of the state feels like the centre of the American political universe. Since she became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris has visited Western Pennsylvania six times—more often than Philadelphia, on the other side of the state. She will mark her seventh on a trip on October 14th, to the small city of Erie, where Donald Trump also held a rally recently. Democratic grandees flit through Pittsburgh regularly. It is where Ms Harris chose to unveil the details of her economic agenda, and it is where Barack Obama visited on October 10th to deliver encouragement and mild chastisement. “Do not just sit back and hope for the best,” he admonished. “Get off your couch and vote.”

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