Higher oil prices led wholesale prices higher in May as inflation pressures begin to build. The Producer Price Index (PPI) surged 0.5% in May from April, above the 0.3% rise expected. On an annual basis PPI jumped 3.1% from 2.6% in April and was the largest increase since January 2012. The Core PPI, which strips out volatile food and energy, rose 0.2% month over month and 2.6% annually.
It's Fed day! The Federal Reserve is expected to raise the short-term Fed Funds Rate by 0.25% to bring it to the 1.75%-2% level.
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports that home loan rates edged higher in the latest week but remain historically low. The MBA reports that the 30-year fixed-rate conforming mortgage rose to 4.83% from 4.75% with points increasing to 0.53 from 0.46 for the week ending June 8, 2018. In addition, the MBA's Market Composite Index, a measure of total mortgage loan application volume, fell 1.5% from the previous week. The purchase and refinance indexes both fell 1.5%.
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