Wholesale Inflation Rises 8 Percent, but Stocks Jump as Investors Thought It Would Be Worse
Wholesale inflation rose by 8 percent in annual terms and 0.2 percent in monthly terms in October, suggesting inflationary pressures for consumers are far from dissipated, but stocks rallied on the opening bell as investors thought the price data would be worse.
Investors expected that inflation from the perspective of business input costs, as measured by the Producer Price Index (PPI), would rise 8.3 percent in the 12 months through October, and by 0.5 percent month over month.
But data released on Nov. 15 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) came in slightly cooler, at 8 percent year over year and 0.2 percent month over month, sending Wall Street’s main indexes higher as the lower-than-expected numbers bolstered bets that the Federal Reserve would slow its pace of rate hikes….