Wholesale prices unexpectedly fell 0.2% in May
Last edited Thu Jun 13, 2024, 09:30 AM - Edit history (1)
Source: CNBC
Published Thu, Jun 13 2024 8:31 AM EDT Updated 2 Min Ago
A measure of wholesale prices unexpectedly decreased in May, adding another piece of evidence that inflation is pulling back.
The producer price index, a gauge of prices that producers get for their goods and services in the open market, declined 0.2% for the month, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday. That reversed a 0.5% increase in April and compared with the Dow Jones estimate for a 0.1% rise.
Excluding food, energy and trade services, the PPI was unchanged, compared with expectations for a 0.3% increase. On an annual basis, the all-items PPI rose 2.2%. Stock market futures saw some modest gains following the report while Treasury yields moved lower.
The release comes a day after the BLS reported that the consumer price index, a widely watched gauge of inflation that measures what consumers actually pay for goods and services, was unchanged on the month.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/13/ppi-report-wholesale-prices-unexpectedly-fell-0point2percent-in-may.html
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PPI for final demand falls 0.2% in May; goods decrease 0.8%, services unchanged https://bls.gov/news.release/ppi.nr0.htm
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8:34 AM · Jun 13, 2024
Article updated.
Previous articles -
A measure of wholesale prices unexpectedly decreased in May, adding another piece of evidence that inflation is pulling back.
The producer price index, a gauge of prices that producers get for their goods and services in the open market, declined 0.2% for the month, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thusday. That reversed a 0.5% increase in April and compared to the Dow Jones estimate for a 0.1% increase.
Excluding food, energy and trade services, PPI was unchanged, compared to expectations for a 0.3% increase.
The release comes a day after the BLS reported that the consumer price index, a widely watched gauge of inflation that measures what consumers actually pay for goods and services, was unchanged on the month.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
A measure of wholesale prices unexpectedly decreased in May, adding another piece of evidence that inflation is pulling back.
The producer price index, a gauge of prices that producers get for their goods and services in the open market, declined 0.2% for the month. That reversed a 0.5% increase in April and compared to the Dow Jones estimate for a 0.1% increase.
Excluding food, energy and trade services, PPI was unchanged, compared to expectations for a 0.3% increase.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
Original article -
The producer price index was expected to show a 0.1% increase in May, according to economists surveyed by Dow Jones.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Last edited Thu Jun 13, 2024, 10:54 AM - Edit history (1)
I've been seeing some mischaracterizations of the recent inflation situation in the media, so here is a summary table followed by the graphs.
I annualize them all to be easy to compare to each other, and to compare to the FED's 2% goal. I use the actual index values rather than the one-digit changes that are commonly reported in the media. Links to the data are with the graphs.
ALL the numbers are the seasonally adjusted ones
The "1 month" number is the change from April to May expressed as an annualized number. (Exception: The PCE is from March to April -- they don't update their number for May until late in June)
The "3 month" number is the growth over the last 3 months (and then annualized). It is calculated based on the change in the index number between the latest one and the one 3 months previous. e.g. if the latest index value is 304 and the one 3 months previous is 300, then the 3 month increase is 1.333333%
. . . (304/300 = 1.01333333 => [subtract 1 and multiply by 100%] => 1.333333%)
Annualized, it is 5.4%
. . . (1.01333333^4 = 1.0544095 => [subtract 1 and multiply by 100%] => 5.44095% => 5.4%).
. . . Most people just multiply the 3 month increase by 4 to annualize it: 1.333333%*4 = 5.333333% => 5.3% which isn''t technically correct (it leaves out compounding) but it is close for small percentage changes.
"Regular" is the "headline" number that has "everything"
"Core" is the regular with food and energy removed (The Fed prefers this as a basis for projecting FUTURE inflation)
Finally, the main summary table
All are seasonally adjusted and annualized
PCE-Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (Fed's favorite inflation measure)
CPI-Consumer Price Index (retail)
PPI-Producer Price Index (Wholesale prices)
Links to the data are with the graphs below
Average real (i.e. inflation-adjusted) hourly earnings are up over the past 2 years and are above the pre-pandemic level:
. . . # Real average hourly earnings of production and non-supervisory workers: https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0500000032
. . . # Real average hourly earnings of private sector workers: https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0500000013
And now the graphs, in the following order:
* Core PCE and Regular PCE (Core PCE is the Fed's favorite for projecting FUTURE inflation)
* Core CPI and Regular CPI
* Wholesale inflation - Core PPI and Regular PPI
CORE PCE through *APRIL* that came out 5/31/24
CORE PCE (seasonally adjusted): https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PCEPILFE
BEA.gov News release: https://www.bea.gov/ and click on "Personal Income and Outlays" or "Personal Income"
This is the one that the Fed weighs most heavily. The Fed weigh the PCE more heavily than the CPI. And in both cases, they weigh the CORE measures higher than the regular headline measures for projecting FUTURE inflation
Regular PCE through *APRIL* that came out 5/31/24
Regular PCE (seasonally adjusted): https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PCEPI
BEA.gov News release: https://www.bea.gov/ and click on "Personal Income and Outlays" or "Personal Income"
CORE CPI through May that came out 6/12/24
CORE CPI (seasonally adjusted) http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0L1E
BLS CPI news release: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm
The Regular aka Headline CPI through May that came out 6/12/24
Regular CPI (seasonally adjusted) https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0
BLS CPI news release: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm
WHOLESALE INFLATION (PPI - the Producer Price Index)
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ppi.nr0.htm
As for which core PPI measure, since the BLS highlights the one below in its reporting (as opposed to the one without food and energy), then I guess I should do likewise.
CORE PPI (excluding food, energy, trade services) through May that came out 6/13/24:
CORE PPI (seasonally adjusted) http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/WPSFD49116
===========================================================
Regular PPI through May that came out 6/13/24 ( includes "everything" ):
Regular PPI (seasonally adjusted) http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/WPSFD4
since corporations love socialism so much. 
And the extra dumb MAGAts are claiming the big corporations are lowering prices because they are anticipating a return of Trump. 
