Cargo containers are stacked on ships at the Port of Los Angeles, the nation’s busiest container port, in San Pedro, California, on October 15, 2021.
Mario Tama | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Some wholesale prices rose more than expected in June as Wall Street gauges when the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates.
The producer price index rose 0.2% last month, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Economists polled by Dow Jones had expected a 0.1% increase for the index. The PPI has now risen 2.6% in the past year.
The PPI is a measure of the prices that producers can get for their goods and services on the open market. In June, a rise in the price of services offset a fall in the price of goods.
The reading is up from May’s number, which was also revised upward. Friday’s report said the index was unchanged in May compared with a 0.2% decline in the original release.
The PPI figures are higher than expected and are at odds with recent data showing falling inflation. However, economists and investors place more weight on inflation figures that are targeted at consumers.
Friday’s report comes shortly after the June consumer price index came in cooler than expected on Thursday, with the CPI showing headline inflation falling on a monthly basis to 3% year-on-year.
The central bank’s next policy meeting is in late July, when rates are widely expected to remain unchanged. Traders have increasingly pegged the September meeting as the likely time for the first rate cut.
The Fed prefers to get inflation information using the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index. June PCE data will be released on July 26.