Investing.com - Producer price inflation in the U.S. was flat in August, while core prices inched up modestly, official data showed on Tuesday.
In a report, the Commerce Department said that producer prices were unchanged last month, compared to forecasts for a 0.1% gain, after rising 0.1% in July.
Year-over-year, the producer price index rose at an annualized rate of 1.8% in August, in line with expectations and up from 1.7% in the preceding month.
The core producer price index eased up by a seasonally adjusted 0.1% last month, meeting expectations and after rising 0.2% in July.
Core producer prices rose at an annualized rate of 1.8% in August, in line with forecasts and up from 1.6% in the preceding month.
Core prices are viewed by the Federal Reserve as a better gauge of longer-term inflationary pressure because they exclude the volatile food and energy categories.
EUR/USD was trading at 1.2952 following the release of the data, from 1.2951 ahead of the report, while GBP/USD was at 1.6198, compared to 1.6196 earlier.
Meanwhile, U.S. equity markets pointed to a lower open. The Dow 30 indicated a loss of 0.15%, the S&P 500 pointed to a decline of 0.1%, while the NASDAQ 100 indicated a drop of 0.2%.