The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Thursday that wholesale prices remained flat in February, providing more welcome news for inflation amid tariff concerns.
this Producer price indexSeasonally adjusted figures show that it is a major indicator of pipeline inflation pressure, with no gains for the month after jumping to 0.6% of upward revision in January. Economists surveyed by the Dow Jones have been looking for a 0.3% increase.
In addition to food and energy, the core PPI decreased by 0.1%, which is also an estimated increase of 0.3% and the first negative reading since July. Core prices also excluded a growth rate of 0.2% for trade services.
Stock market futures and futures suffer losses after reporting, while fiscal yields are still higher.
The report comes a day after the BLS report said the consumer price index rose 0.2% in February, bringing title inflation to 2.8%, slightly eased from January, while some encouraging news as the market is concerned about President Donald Trump’s impact.
CPI measures the costs paid by consumers on the register for goods and services, and PPI is a measure of the final demand price a producer receives for their products.
Federal Reserve officials lean more closely on a Department of Commerce inflation measure to be released later this month, although data from PPI and CPI are derived from the report.
Toutiao producer prices rose 3.2% over the same period, well below the Fed’s 2% goal, despite the pace in January below 3.7%. Core PPI rose 3.4% in February, down 0.4 percentage points from January.
At the end of the two-day policy meeting, the market will allocate nearly 100% of the odds.
Policymakers have repeatedly said they are taking a cautious approach, especially in Trump’s fiscal and trade policy. The current market expects the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates next June and reduce the two quarter-point reductions by the end of the year.
Service prices fell 0.2%, while commodities rose 0.3%. BLS said two-thirds of the increase in goods was due to a 53.6% increase in egg prices. Eggs are partly due to evidence that prices have been slow in March due to the slow outbreak, but eggs have soared.
In terms of services, more than 40% of the decline comes from machinery and vehicle wholesale profit margins drop by 1.4%.
