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Wholesale prices rose 0.2%, in line with expectations

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Wholesale prices rose 0.2% in August, in line with expectations

Wholesale prices rose in August about in line with expectations, the final inflation data point as the Federal Reserve gets set to lower interest rates.

The producer price index, a measure of final demand goods and services costs that producers receive, increased 0.2% on the month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday. That matched the Dow Jones consensus estimate.

Excluding food and energy, PPI increased 0.3%, slightly hotter than the 0.2% consensus estimate. The core increase was the same when excluding trade services.

On a 12-month basis, headline PPI rose 1.7%. Excluding food, energy and trade, the annual rate was 3.3%.

In other economic news Thursday, the Labor Department said initial filings for unemployment benefits totaled 230,000 for the week ended Sept. 7, up 2,000 from the previous period and higher than the 225,000 estimate.

Stock market futures were little changed after the report while Treasury yields were mostly lower.

On the PPI measure, services prices pushed much of the gain, with a 0.4% monthly increase driven by a rise in services less trade, transportation and warehousing. Another big contributor was a 4.8% jump in guestroom rental.

Goods prices were flat on the month, reversing a 0.6% gain in July.

The release comes a day after the BLS reported that consumer prices rose 0.2% on the month in line with expectations. However, that report also showed that core prices climbed 0.3%, slightly more than expected and pushed higher mostly by an increase in shelter-related expenses.

On an annual basis, headline CPI inflation decreased to 2.5% while core held at 3.2%.

Neither report is expected to keep the Fed from lowering benchmark interest rates by a quarter percentage point when its two-day policy meeting concludes Wednesday. The central bank’s key overnight borrowing rate is currently targeted in a range between 5.25%-5.5%.

Market pricing had indicated some uncertainty over how much the central bank would cut, but recent data along with statements from policymakers have pushed Wall Street into looking in a more traditional quarter-point move, rather than a more aggressive half-point reduction.

Fed officials of late have turned their attention more to a slowing labor market.

The jobless claims report indicated that layoffs have not spiked, though the weekly number has risen slightly over the past several months.

Continuing claims, which run a week behind edged just higher to 1.85 million, an increase of just 5,000 from the previous period.

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Elon Musk’s failure in government

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WHEN DONALD TRUMP announced last November that Elon Musk would be heading a government-efficiency initiative, many of his fellow magnates were delighted. The idea, wrote Shaun Maguire, a partner at Sequoia Capital, a venture-capital firm, was “one of the greatest things I’ve ever read.” Bill Ackman, a billionaire hedge-fund manager, wrote his own three-step guide to how DOGE, as it became known, could influence government policy. Even Bernie Sanders, a left-wing senator, tweeted hedged support, saying that Mr Musk was “right”, pointing to waste and fraud in the defence budget.

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The elites of the American right cannot reconcile the inconsistencies in their policy platform

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People cooking at home at highest level since Covid, Campbell’s says

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A worker arranges cans of Campbell’s soup on a supermarket shelf in San Rafael, California.

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Campbell’s has seen customers prepare their own meals at the highest rate in about half a decade, offering the latest sign of everyday people tightening their wallets amid economic concerns.

“Consumers are cooking at home at the highest levels since early 2020,” Campbell’s CEO Mick Beekhuizen said Monday, adding that consumption has increased among all income brackets in the meals and beverages category.

Beekhuizen drew parallels between today and the time when Americans were facing the early stages of what would become a global pandemic. It was a period of broad economic uncertainty as the Covid virus affected every aspect of everyday life and caused massive shakeups in spending and employments trends.

The trends seen by the Pepperidge Farm and V-8 maker comes as Wall Street and economists wonder what’s next for the U.S. economy after President Donald Trump‘s tariff policy raised recession fears and battered consumer sentiment.

More meals at home could mean people are eating out less, showing Americans tightening their belts. That can spell bad news for gross domestic product, two thirds of which relies on consumer spending. A recession is commonly defined as two straight quarters of the GDP shrinking.

It can also underscore the souring outlook of everyday Americans on the national economy. The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index last month fell to one of its lowest levels on record.

Campbell’s remarks came after the soup maker beat Wall Street expectations in its fiscal third quarter. The Goldfish and Rao’s parent earned 73 cents per share, excluding one-time items, on $2.48 billion in revenue, while analysts polled by FactSet anticipated 65 cents and $2.43 billion, respectively.

Shares added 0.8% before the bell on Monday. The stock has tumbled more than 18% in 2025.

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