Producer prices did not rise in July. They did not return to normal, either.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday that its Producer Price Index for final demand was unchanged from June. The same index was 4.7% higher than it was in July 2025.
Businesses buying fuel, freight, inventory or professional services got no broad increase in July. They also got no refund for the price increases that came before it.
Gasoline fell while services kept climbing
Prices for final-demand goods fell 0.7% in July. Gasoline dropped 5.7%, food fell 0.9% and the broader energy-goods index declined 3.1%. Truck freight prices also fell 1.8%.
Services moved the other way. They rose 0.2%, while construction prices climbed 2.2%. Portfolio-management fees jumped 6.5%. The index that strips out food, energy and trade services rose 0.4% for the month and 4.7% over the year.
Those figures come from the BLS release. The agency’s interactive final-demand chart shows how the annual rate moved from 6.0% in May to 5.5% in June and 4.7% in July.
Businesses are still paying more than they did a year ago, and service costs have not followed gasoline down.
Inflation is still beating hourly pay
Consumer prices rose 0.1% in July and 3.4% over the year, according to a separate BLS report. Shelter supplied about two-thirds of the monthly increase. Energy fell 1.5% in July, but gasoline was still 24.6% more expensive than it was a year earlier.
Pay did not fully catch up. Real average hourly earnings fell 0.2% from July 2025 to July 2026. Real weekly earnings edged up 0.1% because the average workweek was longer.
The weekly gain came with a longer workweek. Families still pay the accumulated price at the grocery store, the gas station and the rent office.
The video above is an evergreen explanation of how BLS constructs the Consumer Price Index. The July figures themselves come from the current government releases linked above.
Missouri Watch
John Combest’s August 13 Missouri political roundup points to a 5-1 Nixa City Council vote authorizing the city police department to join Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s 287(g) task-force program.
The Springfield Daily Citizen reports that selected officers will receive federal training and may perform limited immigration duties during ordinary police work. Captain Jason Fleetwood told the council that the agreement adds a legal framework and federal resources without turning the department toward general immigration enforcement.
Residents raised a different concern. They argued that ICE cooperation could damage trust and asked whether federal agents could reach data from local license-plate cameras. Police leaders said the required tracking data concern arrests, not how officers encountered a person.
ICE’s own 287(g) program page says the task-force model operates under federal direction and supervision. Nixa keeps a local badge on the street while accepting a slice of federal authority. The council’s vote settled the agreement. It did not settle the argument over local control, surveillance and due process.
From the 4Liberty Network
Austin Petersen goes back ten years to his presidential-debate record and puts one question at the center of the program: who should be trusted to run a life?
In “New Austin Vs. Old Austin: What’s Changed?”, Petersen frames four different stories around that question and compares his current position with the case he made a decade ago.
Going Viral
FreedomToons puts cartoon Tucker Carlson across from cartoon Hunter Biden. The setup is absurd on purpose, and the title tells you exactly what kind of collision is coming.
The Daily Volley is produced by 4Liberty Network. Share it with someone who wants hard numbers, Missouri reporting, independent voices and one good political joke without the cable-news script.