A customer wearing a protective mask shops for meat at a store in San Francisco.
The Labor Department reported Tuesday that wholesale prices increased at their fastest pace ever in November, a sign that inflation pressures are still present.
The producer price index for final demand products increased over the previous year. The economists had been looking for a gain of 9.2%.
The largest gain on record was made by the corePPI, which rose 6.9% in the month. The monthly and year-over-year gains were both slower than estimates, but the monthly gain was faster than estimates.
The Labor Department keeps a record of the headline number since November 2010.
Consumer prices are running at their fastest pace in nearly 40 years and core inflation is the hottest in 30 years.
Demand for goods rose 1.2% for the month, a touch slower than the 1.3% October increase. The services side could be catching up in prices after lagging through much of the recovery, as final demand services inflation ran at a 0.7% monthly rate, much faster than the October rate.
The stock market futures added to the losses after the release as investors saw inflation and the potential for a Federal Reserve policy response as threats to what has been a boom year for equities.
Expectations are high that the Fed will start raising interest rates around the middle part of the next decade, as it begins its two-day meeting Tuesday.
Fed officials had been saying for months that inflation wastransitory and that it was tied to the swine flu. In the last few days, Chairman Powell and others have indicated that word no longer is appropriate and likely will be dropped from future central bank communications.
The primary drivers of inflation have been supply chain issues, but have lessened slightly.
Energy prices increased by 2.6% in November despite a drop in crude prices. Portfolio management increased 2.9%.
Iron and steel scrap prices increased by 10.7%, and a host of other costs also increased. Diesel fuel costs were down for the month.
