The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor announced today that the Producer Price Index (PPI) for finished goods rose 0.3% from August to September.

The PPI for finished goods measures the wholesale price level of cars, TV sets, clothing, food, and everything else produced in the United States.

During the second and third quarters of this year, prices received by domestic producers of finished goods increased at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 0.9%. This is right in line with the average increase of about 0.7% from the end of the 1990-91 recession to early this year. The average growth of the PPI during the past four years has been the lowest of any four year period for the past 30 years. It appears that, at the wholesale level, inflation is under control.

Elsewhere in the Labor Department, the Employment and Training Administration announced that new claims for unemployment insurance benefits had risen by 6,000 during the week ended October 7. The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate has held steady at 2.4% for the past 8 weeks. This is consistent with the steady overall unemployment rate which has held at around 5.6% for the past several months. This is lower than the average unemployment rates for 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1994 which were 6.7, 7.4, 6.8 and 6.1, respectively.

The bond and stock markets appeared to be pleased with today's news. Both closed comfortably to the upside.

Byline: Lafferty (MF Merlin)