The housing market continues to amaze. So, despite rising mortgage rates, consumers are still looking to build new homes. When you consider that permits rose to their highest level in almost a year, this trend should continue for at least several months. This is amazing considering the sharp increase in oil prices over the past several months. PPI is growing at an annualized rate of 2.5 percent, and core PPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, is growing at an annual clip of a scant .8 percent.
Inflation is dead, at least on the wholesale level.
This was important because the reading the week prior was over 300. Ostensibly, the manufacturing picture in the Mid-Atlantic region continues to point to growth. It is interesting to note that this paints a different picture that the Atlanta Fed diffusion index. They both point to continued growth, but they differ significantly in the breadth of these improvements. Even more compelling evidence that inflation is benign, is the annualized growth rate of the core CPI rate.