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The producer price index report showed that inflation for businesses rose. The July PPI report indicated that inflation for businesses, aka “wholesale inflation,” increased by 0.9% last month, more than the 0.2% forecast. Economist Stephen Brown at Capital Economics said in a client note that some of the rise is attributable to higher costs in portfolio management, which “won’t concern the FOMC”—the Federal Open Market Committee, which is the part of the Federal Reserve that makes monetary policy. However, following the report, the odds of the Fed cutting rates by 0.25% at its meeting next month fell from 100% to 95%, according to the CME Group, a derivatives exchange. At the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium next week, Fed Chair Jerome Powell is expected to lay out his vision of the economy.

The average 30-year fixed mortgage hit its lowest rate since October 2024 this week. The decrease wasn’t much—6.58%, down from 6.63% last week—but it represented a reprieve amid persistently high mortgage rates. The drop was related to bond yields creeping lower, which were in turn influenced by weak hiring data in the July jobs report. This might be more blip than trend for now, though. Mortgage Bankers Association Chief Economist Michael Fratantoni told the Wall Street Journal, “What I’ve told our members is to just sort of expect there are going to be these moments of opportunity. But don’t expect they’re going to last long.” For most of the year, mortgage rates have sat just below 7%, which has meant listings staying up longer and fewer qualified purchasers being interested.

The Trump administration might be considering buying a stake in Intel. In an exclusive, Bloomberg cited anonymous sources as saying, though plans are “fluid,” a deal in which the US government would take a stake in the chipmaker to help bring its long-sought plant in Ohio to fruition. While a White House spokesperson, responding to Bloomberg’s request for comment, said the deal was “speculation,” it would fit an emerging pattern of the federal government brokering industry deals, such as the “golden share” arrangement brokered with Nippon Steel and, more recently, the deal for the US to receive 15% of Nvidia revenue that comes from the sale of the H20 chip to China. The sources said a deal would be contingent upon Lip-Bu Tan remaining the CEO of Intel.—HVL

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