Producer Prices Rise Less Than Expected
Wholesale prices rose less than expected last month.
The
Producer Price Index
rose 0.1% last month, government data released this morning show. The measure of wholesale prices was expected to climb 0.3%, lead by strength in energy and tobacco prices and on par with April's 0.3% increase in prices.
Excluding volatile food and energy prices, producer prices rose 0.2%, a bit higher than the 0.1% increase that was expected. They had gone up 0.2% in April. Economists and
Federal Reserve
officials generally seem to think
inflation is contained, but price changes are being closely watched because interest rates have been cut so aggressively since the beginning of the year to encourage more consumer and business spending.
Stock futures climbed after the data were released.
Initial jobless claims for the week ended June 9 fell 12,000. In the latest week, 428,000 people filed for unemployment benefits, compared to 440,000, which is the revised number of individuals who'd filed the previous week. These claims for unemployment benefits also are being analyzed carefully. Even though the unemployment rate slipped last month, it has been moving higher as a growing list of companies lay off staff to deal with shrinking corporate profits.
And latest data on
business inventories show that inventories were unchanged in April.
As they keep looking for clues about the state of the economy, investors will also keep watch over continued appearances by Fed officials: Fed Vice Chairman
Roger Ferguson
is scheduled to speak again today, a day after saying the economy is still at risk.