Mixed Reaction To March Business Inflation. Market Awaits Treasury Auction & Reg Reform News. (CHARTS)

The US Producer Price Index, which measures inflation at the business and manufacturing levels of the economy, was 0.7% in March and 6% year-over-year through March. Excluding volatile oil and food costs from the readings, “Core” PPI for March was 0.1% and 0.9% YOY through March. The “Core” numbers were very close to last month and considered tame, but the YOY March number of 6% is cause for concern. Rates initially ticked up on the news this morning, but have since evened out on stock weakness caused by: higher than expected jobless claims (456k actual vs. 450k expected) and a worse than previously reported number on Greece’s budget deficit. Looking forward today, Treasury will announce the amount of securities to be auctioned off next week: 2-yr, 5-yr, 7-yr, and 5-yr TIPS. And also President Obama will be speaking shortly on regulatory reform.

See the BLS charts for producer prices below; you can see how volatile this monthly inflation report is, and this is why markets shift so much each month as it’s released. Also you can automatically create charts and download historical PPI data by scrolling to our data section on the right side of the site, or visiting our Data page. And you can see all stats on our Economic Calendar page, and click each release title for the definition of what each stat means.