U.S Wholesale Prices Increase in June

The gain in U.S. wholesale prices reflected higher food and services costs, signaling modest inflation, a Labor Department report showed Thursday in Washington.

HIGHLIGHTS OF PRODUCER PRICES (JUNE)

  • Producer-price index rose 0.1% (est. 0.0%) after no change the previous month
  • PPI 2% from a year earlier after a 2.4% gain in the prior 12-month period
  • Excluding food and energy, gauge rose 0.1% from previous month and was up 1.9% from June 2016
  • Key Takeaways

    Almost 80 percent of the increase in wholesale prices was due to a 0.2 percent gain in services as goods costs edged up 0.1 percent. A big factor behind the pickup in services costs was a 4 percent rise in prices for securities brokerage and investment advice.

    Otherwise, price pressures in the production pipeline remain contained, keeping broader inflation below the Federal Reserve’s goal and helping explain why policy makers plan to raise interest rates only gradually.

    The PPI excluding food, energy, and trade services — a measure some economists prefer because it strips out the most volatile components — increased 2 percent from June 2016, also indicating inflation is taking time to pick up.

    Other Details

  • Excluding the volatile categories of food, energy, and trade services, producer costs rose 0.2 percent from the previous month following a 0.1 percent decline
  • Energy prices fell 0.5 percent from the prior month; food costs rose 0.6 percent
  • Goods inflation crept higher after falling 0.5 percent in May; services prices also climbed after a 0.3 percent advance
  • Profit margins at trade services including retailers and wholesalers were down 0.2 percent
  • Bloomberg

    Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.

    Dean Popplewell

    Dean Popplewell

    Vice-President of Market Analysis at MarketPulse
    Dean Popplewell has nearly two decades of experience trading currencies and fixed income instruments. He has a deep understanding of market fundamentals and the impact of global events on capital markets. He is respected among professional traders for his skilled analysis and career history as global head of trading for firms such as Scotia Capital and BMO Nesbitt Burns. Since joining OANDA in 2006, Dean has played an instrumental role in driving awareness of the forex market as an emerging asset class for retail investors, as well as providing expert counsel to a number of internal teams on how to best serve clients and industry stakeholders.
    Dean Popplewell