Wholesale inflation up in October
Wholesale-level inflation in the U.S. accelerated last month to its highest rate in nearly four years, Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed Friday. The Producer Price Index (PPI), a measurement of average price changes received by producers and manufacturers, rose 0.3% from the month before and 6.5% for the 12 months ended in October, the highest annual rate since November 2022. The Iran war and the resulting energy supply shock have sent gas and diesel prices markedly higher in recent months. Fuel prices didn’t rise as fast last month as they did in September when the PPI rose to an annualized rate of 6.3%; however, the ripple effects from the recent months’ surge coupled with other more persistent price pressures kept wholesale inflation quite elevated. The PPI serve as a glimpse into what consumers could experience in the months to come.
Home sale numbers down but prices up
Existing-home sales decreased by 5.5% month-over-month and decreased by 8.8% year-over-year, according to the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) Existing-Home Sales report for October. Month-over-month sales declined in the Midwest, South and West and held steady in the Northeast. Year-over-year sales declined in all four regions. “Home buying is difficult when mortgage rates have climbed to their highest levels since 2000, aside from a single month in 2023. As a result, home sales fell to their lowest level since August 2010,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. The median existing-home price for all housing types was $416,700. The median price increased 0.4% from $414,900 one year ago, marking the 40th consecutive month of year-over-year price increases.
Finger pointing in wake of NVIDIA scandal
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday accused the Commerce Department of a delay in labeling NVIDIA customer Megaspeed a possible national security threat, publicly airing an ongoing administration blame game following the ouster of NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang. Huang had an affair with a woman suspected of being a Chinese spy and a second affair with an executive of the company he ran. Bessent’s comments came as some of Donald Trump’s advisers have begun discussing whether Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick should be dismissed, according to people familiar with the conversations. Trump himself has also fielded calls from administration officials and outside advisors raising alarm bells about Lutnick, two additional people said. Bessent said a wide swath of Trump’s administration favored placing Megaspeed on an export blacklist but Lutnick’s Commerce Department failed to follow through.
Vance pulled from Iran talks
Donald Trump has removed Vice President Vance from the negotiations that have been ongoing to end the war that Trump started with Iran. Trump said he is ready to order new attacks against Iran. Meantime, European delegates will join the next round of peace talks with Ukraine and Russia, U.S. envoy Jared Kushner said after both he and Steve Witkoff meet both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. After speaking to Putin in Moscow, Kushner said, “Both sides have now agreed to expand the next round of negotiations to include our European partners. This will allow us to address the broader postwar European security agreements alongside the territorial issues between Ukraine and Russia.” The Kremlin offered no firm response to the possibility of European involvement and doubled down on key territorial demands that have Putin demanding that Russia keep Ukrainian territory it had taken by force.
Microsoft makes some progress in fixing global outage
Microsoft is making progress in restoring service after a massive outage that left people around the world without access to Outlook email, Teams meeting tools and other staples of modern computer-era life. In the United States, fed-up workers at some companies went home early on Thursday. In Australia, businesses couldn’t print invoices and some schools couldn’t hold online classes on Friday. As of Friday morning, the outage still was affecting millions of Microsoft users around the world. Users of Microsoft services in at least 70 countries were affected. Microsoft was slow to release details of what had happened and what it is doing to try to fix the problems. In some cases Microsoft said fixes were working and then said that they weren’t having the desired effect. Microsoft 365 services that interact with Exchange Online and email services were all impacted. That includes Outlook, SharePoint, Teams, 365 and Copilot AI.
Darth Vader’s lightsaber sells for $4.87M
A lightsaber wielded by Darth Vader in the “Star Wars” movie “The Empire Strikes Back” before he delivered the famous line “I am your father” sold for over $4.87 million on Thursday. Described by Heritage Auctions as the character’s “primary dueling lightsaber,” it is the most expensive item of “Star Wars” memorabilia ever to go under the hammer. The prop was used by actor David Prowse and his stunt double, the Olympic fencer Bob Anderson, in several fight scenes. The $4.87 million price tag surpassed the previous auction record of $3.75 million for a “Star Wars” prop. Heritage Auctions’ “Ultimate Star Wars” sale featured almost 200 props and artworks related to the “Star Wars” franchise.
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Source: westfaironline.com
