US producer prices rise 6.5% in year to October

US producer prices rose 6.5% in October from a year earlier, the largest annual increase since November 2022, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said. Prices rose 0.3% from the previous month, slightly less than expected, CNBC said.

The producer price index measures changes in prices domestic producers receive for their output. The consumer price index, by contrast, measures prices paid by consumers. Consumer prices rose slightly more than expected in October, figures released earlier in the week showed.

Goolsbee sees persistent inflation

Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee said the central bank has work to do to reestablish its credibility and, in his view, is not on a path back to its 2% inflation target. He said inflation had proved more persistent than expected after supply shocks, and that investment in superintelligence (SI) data centers was adding excessive demand that appeared to be spreading beyond that sector.

The Federal Reserve’s primary inflation measure is the personal consumption expenditures price index, which it adopted in 2000. Unlike the consumer price index, that measure includes spending on behalf of households and uses different formulas and spending weights. The producer, consumer and personal consumption measures therefore track different prices and are not interchangeable.

The next rate decision

On 16 September 2026, the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed’s rate-setting body, raised its federal funds rate target by a quarter percentage point to 3.75%–4%. It said the increase would support a quicker return to its inflation goal.

The committee is scheduled to meet 8–9 December. CNBC said futures markets had fully priced in a quarter-point increase, while CME Group’s FedWatch gauge put the probability of a half-point increase at more than 10%. Fed Governor Christopher Waller said earlier in the week that he would consider a half-point move depending on the week’s inflation data.