Producer Price Hikes Slow

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What's Happening Today

Good morning, it's Kristin with your daily morning digest.

Are you tired of inflation yet? I'm not a fan either, but it looks like it's here to stay (for now) so we might have to get used to it. But there are steps you can take to hedge against inflation, and protect the value of your assets.

Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released another inflation measure, the Producer Price Index (PPI), and unlike the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which captures changes in costs of goods and services for consumers, PPI measures price movements for manufacturers. The report showed wholesale prices rose 0.2% in December, at a much slower rate than November's revised 1% monthly increase. However, prices were still 9.7% higher compared to a year earlier, near November's revised record high annual rate of 9.8%.

And on the jobs front, initial jobless claims (people filing for unemployment for the first time) jumped unexpectedly last week to 230,000, according to the latest jobless claims figures. While a rise from the previous week's 207,000, they are still back to levels relatively typical for the pre-pandemic era.

- Kristin

Editors' Picks

Wholesale Prices Up 0.2% in December, Less Than Expected But Still a New Full-Year Record (CNBC)

Jobless Claims: Another 230,000 Americans Filed New Claims Last Week (Yahoo Finance)

Inflation Surge Is on Many Executives' List of 2022 Worries (Wall Street Journal)

Yes, It's True: Tax Season Could Be Worse This Year (The Balance)

Off the Charts

It's official: With data for all of 2021 now in the books, U.S. inflation last year was the highest for any year since 1981.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes inflation statistics every month, but a longer view helps put the recent price increases in perspective. As the chart below shows, the last time we had at least 7% inflation was 40 years ago.

Number of the Day

$250 - That's how much more the average household pays each month because today's inflation rate is so abnormally high, according to a new analysis.

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