Treasury secretary sends blunt message to Pelosi, Congress

Thursday, August 14, 2025

Investors might have thought that Tuesday's Consumer Price Index readout meant that the U.S. markets were about to get a burst of energy. The moderated increase in inflation confirmed for investors that a September rate cut was in the bag and that markets would keep soaring. The Russell 2000, the worst-performing of the major U.S. indexes, rallied on the report.

But investors might have put the cart before the horse. That's because the producer side is trying everyone's patience. This morning, the wholesale inflation report came in much more aggressively than its consumer counterpart. The PPI rose 0.9% month-over-month, up 3.3% year-over-year. And core PPI? That was up 3.7%. Maybe the only consolation at 8:30 a.m. ET was the initial and continuing jobless claims, which fell modestly week-over-week.

Thursday Reading:

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• Cathie Wood buys $13.4 million of surprising tech stock
• TSA is on the lookout for these newly banned items
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• AMC moves to keep frustrated customers from fleeing

You know what's not up? Stocks. The Nasdaq (-0.1%), S&P 500 (-0.13%), and Dow (-0.33%) are all down at midday. The Russell 2000, which had rallied more than 4% since the CPI dropped on Tuesday, gave back 1.7% intraday.

Yes, there's cause for optimism -- but the producer price index might serve as an omen. It's not unusual for higher producer costs to trickle down to consumers. In fact, Fed officials have recently warned that that might just happen. And if it does it might introduce new threats to stocks at all-time highs. After all, strong earnings can be made less strong if the mighty dollar isn't worth what it used to be.

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-- Noah Weidner, markets reporter

Treasury secretary sends blunt message to Pelosi, Congress

Scott Bessent favors a major change.

[READ ARTICLE]

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