“Wholesale prices were flat in July, below expectations for 0.2% increase”

What actually happened

The BLS reported the Producer Price Index for final demand was flat in July, undershooting the 0.2% consensus estimate. Core PPI (ex-food and energy) rose 0.2% against a 0.3% forecast, while goods prices fell on lower energy costs and services rose modestly.

Key facts

• Headline PPI: 0.0% in July vs. 0.2% Dow Jones consensus, following a 0.1% June decline that was revised from a previously reported decline of 0.3%.
• Core PPI (ex-food/energy): Excluding food and energy, the core PPI rose 0.2%, against the forecast for a 0.3% gain. Core PPI ex-trade services rose 0.4%.
• Annual rate: On an annual basis, the headline PPI increased 4.7% for the all-items index and 4.2% for core, according to unadjusted figures, confirmed independently by the BLS release itself, which states final demand prices increased 4.7 percent for the 12 months ended in July.
• Composition: Services prices rose 0.2% for the month, pushed by a 6.5% surge in portfolio management, a category that can show outsized gains in the first month of the quarter due to reporting requirements. Goods prices fell 0.7%, helped by a 3.1% decrease in energy, including a 5.7% slide in the gasoline index.
• Other outlets corroborate the same print: Wholesale prices were unchanged in July, but the annual rate of inflation for the goods and services businesses buy declined to 4.7%, per AP/US News, with the same 0.2% consensus figure cited.

What to watch for

• June's PPI was revised sharply (from -0.3% to -0.1%), so watch whether July's flat reading gets revised up next month; a pattern of upward revisions would blunt the "easing" narrative.
• The 6.5% portfolio-management jump in services is flagged in the article itself as a quarterly reporting quirk, worth tracking to see if it reverses in August data.