Gas prices are displayed at a Brooklyn gas station on Sept. 4, 2026, in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
U.S. wholesale prices rose in August, according to a report Thursday that could play a key role in the Federal Reserve’s upcoming interest rate decision.
The producer price index, a measure of final-demand costs for goods and services, increased a seasonally adjusted 0.4% for the month, in line with the Dow Jones consensus, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday.
On an annual basis, that put PPI at 5.4%, still well above the Fed’s 2% inflation target and 0.1 percentage point higher than expected. PPI rose 0.1% in July, a slight upward revision from the original estimate of no change.
Excluding food and energy, core PPI accelerated by 0.2%, against the forecast for a 0.3% increase. Core less trade services, another volatile category, was up 0.3%.
Stock market futures were negative following the report, the release of which coincided with U.S. crude oil prices topping $100 a barrel. Treasury yields moved sharply higher.
Energy prices in particular and goods prices overall were responsible for most of the increase. Final-demand energy prices rose 4.2%, pushed largely by soaring diesel, which surged 24.1%. Goods prices broadly increased 1.1%.
Services prices were up just 0.1%, with a 2.3% increase in transportation and warehousing accounting for much of that move.
Portfolio management costs, a closely watched metric in the PPI calculations, fell 1.6% for the month but were still up 18.8% from a year ago.
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