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US equity futures were pointing to the fourth day in a row of gains this morning as last week’s oversold levels, positive seasonals, and a lack of escalation in the Middle East have all contributed to the positive tone.

The fact that US Treasury yields were sharply lower again after some non-hawkish commentary from Fed speakers like San Francisco President Mary Daly and Fed Governor Michelle Bowman has also helped. The only thing left to get through was PPI, but unfortunately, those numbers were on the hot side.

PPI for the month of September was recently released, and the headline reading came in much higher than expected (+0.5% month-over-month vs 0.3% month-over-month expectations). The core reading also topped expectations at 0.3% compared to forecasts for a reading of 0.2%. Those readings took the year-over-year levels to 2.2% (versus 1.6% expectations) at the headline level and 2.7% on a core basis (2.3% expected).

As shown in the charts below, the move higher in headline PPI has sandwiched it right between its pre-COVID-19 average of 1.7%, dating back to November 2010 when the current iteration of Final Demand began and its overall average of 2.6%.

On a core basis, September’s reading of 2.7% is above its overall average of 2.6% and nearly a full percentage point above its pre-COVID-19 average of 1.8%. There’s still some work to do on the inflation front.

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