US wholesale inflation jumps to 6.5%, fastest since 2022

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said Nov. 13 that its producer price index for final demand rose 6.5% from a year earlier in October, up from 6.3% in September. The monthly increase was a seasonally adjusted 0.3%, slowing sharply from a revised 1.4% in September. Both headline figures landed under Investing.com's calendar forecasts of 6.6% annually and 0.4% monthly — a smaller-than-expected rise, not falling prices.

The annual reading is the highest since November 2022, when prices rose 7.4%, per the BLS historical series. Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee told CNBC on Friday that "inflation is rising; it's proved far more persistent than we predicted at the beginning from the supply shocks."

Crypto edged up around the 8:30 a.m. ET release. Between 8:29 a.m. and 9 a.m. ET, bitcoin rose about 0.4%, reaching $69,484, and ether gained about 0.5%, hitting $1,966, according to calculations using Coinbase data that bracket the release. The comparison doesn't establish that the inflation report alone drove the moves.

Rate traders weren't betting on relief. Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor, tracking federal funds futures, showed a 91.3% probability of a quarter-point hike and an 8.7% chance of a half-point move as of its 12:35 a.m. ET update on Nov. 14. The Fed left its target range at 3.75%–4% in October.

Inside the October report, goods prices rose 0.5%, with more than 60% of that coming from goods excluding food and energy. Food prices climbed 1.3% while energy slipped 0.1%. Services rose 0.2%, led by transportation and warehousing, while trade-service margins fell 0.2%. Stripping out food, energy and trade services, PPI rose 0.5%, matching September's gain.

The Fed's next policy meeting runs Dec. 8–9. November's PPI lands Dec. 15 at 8:30 a.m. ET, and October's figures remain preliminary.