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Economy in Brief
Japan Shows Very Moderate Growth As Trade War Clouds Gather
Japan’s sector indexes showed a solid gain in February...
U.S. Consumer Confidence Unexpectedly Rose in April
The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index rose to 128.7 in April from 127.0 (initially reported as 127.7) in March...
U.S. New Home Sales and Prices Strengthen
Sales of new single-family homes during March increased 4.0% (8.8% y/y) to 694,000 (SAAR)...
U.S. FHFA House Price Index Continues to Strengthen
The FHFA index of U.S. house prices rose 0.6% during February...
U.S. Energy Prices Rise Further
Retail gasoline prices increased to $2.80 per gallon last week (14.3% y/y)...
by Tom Moeller January 17, 2007
The producer price index for finished goods gained another 0.9% last month after the 2.0% surge during November. Led by a 2.5% rise in energy prices and a 1.7% increase in food prices, the gain nearly doubled Consensus expectations for a 0.5% rise.
The 0.2% core PPI rise calmed down after November's surprise 1.3% surge though that was double Consensus expectations for a 0.1% uptick.
The strength in finished energy goods prices was led by a 7.1% (1.8% y/y) surge in gasoline prices and a 4.0% (6.5% y/y) increase in fuel oil prices. Natural gas prices also increased 0.7% (-11.4% y/y).
Finished consumer goods prices less food & energy rose 0.2% (2.0% y/y) after the 1.3% November surge. Passenger car prices fell 0.2% (-0.5% y/y) but furniture prices rose 0.1% (2.1% y/y).
Capital equipment prices increased 0.2% (2.3% y/y) as light truck prices rose 0.7% (2.2% y/y) after the 13.7% November spike.
Intermediate goods prices increased another 0.5% but prices less food & energy fell again with a 0.1% downtick which reflected another decline (-0.4%, +11.6% y/y) in steel mill product prices.
The crude materials PPI surged again by 2.9% led by a strength in crude petroleum prices which has since reversed. The core crude materials PPI also was firm led by a 12.4% rebound in iron & steel scrap prices (2.8% y/y).
Producer Price Index | December | November | Y/Y | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Finished Goods | 0.9% | 2.0% | 1.2% | 2.9% | 4.9% | 3.6% |
Core | 0.2% | 1.3% | 2.0% | 1.4% | 2.4% | 1.5% |
Intermediate Goods | 0.5% | 0.7% | 2.8% | 6.5% | 8.0% | 6.6% |
Core | -0.1% | -0.3% | 4.7% | 6.1% | 5.5% | 5.7% |
Crude Goods | 2.9% | 15.7% | -2.4% | 1.8% | 14.6% | 17.5% |
Core | 1.0% | 0.5% | 16.8% | 20.9% | 4.8% | 26.5% |