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The numbers: The cost of wholesale goods and services jumped 1.1% in June, signaling inflation has spread deeply in the economy and won’t be easy to eradicate.
Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had forecast a 0.8% gain.
The increase in wholesale prices over the past 12 months rose to 11.3% from 10.9%, the government said Thursday. Just a year and a half ago, prices were rising at a less than 2% pace.
A day earlier, the government also reported that the prices consumers pay directly had risen 9.1% in the past 12 months — the biggest increase in almost 41 years.
If food, gas and retail trade margins are omitted, so-called core producer prices rose just 0.3% in June in a glimmer of hope that inflation pressures are starting to ease.
Yet inflation in the earlier stages of production suggest the upward pressure on prices are still intense.
Big picture: Wholesale and consumer prices are likely ease in July if the recent decline in oil sticks, but make no mistake: High inflation is here to stay for a while.
The Federal Reserve is trying to squelch inflation by sharply raising interest rates and slowing the economy, but the central bank runs the risk of causing a recession if it’s too aggressive.
Market reaction: The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.67%
and S&P 500
SPX,
-0.45%
were set to open sharply lower in Thursday trades.
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