The Producer Price Index decreased by 0.6% in February to 177.3 (1982=100), beating the expected decrease of 0.1%, following increases of 1.4% and 0.4% in January and December. Over the year, the index has increased by 4.4%, the fourth consecutive 12-month increase. The index for energy goods decreased by 2.9% in February and prices for consumer foods increased by 0.4%. Excluding food and energy prices, Core PPI increased 0.1% after increasing by 0.3% in January.
Crude inventories are expected today at 10:30 AM EST. For the week ending March 5, U.S. commercial crude oil inventories had increased by 1.4 million barrels from the previous week to 343.0 million barrels and were above the upper limit of the average range for that time of year. U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 13.9 million barrels per day during this period, 149 thousand barrels per day below the previous week’s average. U.S. crude oil imports were averaging 8.5 million barrels per day, down 744 thousand barrels per day from the previous week.
Upcoming Releases
Crude Inventories (03/17 at 10:30 AM EST)
CPI (03/18 at 8:30 AM EST)
Initial Claims (03/18 at 8:30 AM EST)
Leading Indicators (03/18 at 10:00 AM EST)
CPI (03/18 at 8:30 AM EST)
Initial Claims (03/18 at 8:30 AM EST)
Leading Indicators (03/18 at 10:00 AM EST)
