Jobless Claims and CPI

Some more economic reports this morning. Initial claims fell to 376,000. That’s another pandemic low. The estimate was for 370,000.

This morning’s CPI report showed that consumer prices rose by 0.644% last month. Core inflation rose by 0.737%.

In the last year, headline inflation is up 4.927%. That’s the highest year-over-year rate since 2008. Core inflation is up 3.795%. That’s the highest year-over-year rate since 1992.

Used cars and truck prices continued their climb higher, rising 7.3% on the month and 29.7% for the past 12 months. The new vehicles index increased 1.6%, its biggest-single month gain since October 2009 and was up 3.3% for the 12-month period, the highest move since November 2011.

However, the energy index was about flat for the month despite the huge runup in gasoline prices this year, while the food index repeated its April rise of 0.4%.
The gasoline index is up 56.2% over the past year, part of an overall 28.5% increase in energy during the period. Food prices have remained comparatively tame, up 2.2% for the 12-month period.

Posted by on June 10th, 2021 at 9:52 am


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