Fox Business Network anchor Maria Bartiromo watched as stocks plunged while correspondent Cheryl Casone read out a devastating new inflation report, remarking that “We are deeper in the red now!”

On Wednesday morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released a PPI (Producer Price Index)  report that showed much higher inflation than expected:

The Producer Price Index for final demand increased 1.4 percent in April, seasonally adjusted, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Final demand prices advanced 0.7 percent in March and 0.6 percent in February. (See table A.) The April increase is the largest advance since rising 1.7 percent in March 2022. On an unadjusted basis, the index for final demand rose 6.0 percent for the 12 months ended in April, the largest 12-month increase since moving up 6.4 percent in December 2022.

As Casone broke the news on Wednesday morning’s edition of Fox Business Network’s Mornings With Maria, Dow futures plunged over a hundred points:

FOX ANCHOR MARIA BARTIROMO: Breaking news on the producer price index, crossing the tape moments ago, it is causing markets to sell off hotter than expected. Again, Cheryl has the numbers.

FOX BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT CHERYL CASONE: It really is! On the heels of CPI yesterday, Maria. Here we go month over month for PPI for the month of April, 6 tenths of a percent. The expectation was a half a percent, so that’s hotter than expected.

The year over year headline number is definitely what I believe the market is reacting to right now. That is 6%. The expectation 4.9 that came in at 6%.

We haven’t seen that level of producer price headline inflation since December of 2022, Maria, and this is the energy story.

Obviously, the core month over month though, that is another piece of the story here, 1%. We came in at 1%, the expectation was three-tenths, and then the core year over year also coming in much harder than expected, 5.2%. The street was looking for 4.3% there.

Really quick, let me get to the report and tell you what the government is citing, but I don’t even think I have to tell you. I think that we all know that it’s going to be the energy story.

60% of the April rise in final demand prices was the 1.2% advance in the index for final demand services, goods jumped 2% and they also of course cite the energy story in this report, Maria and markets do not like what they’re saying back to you.

FOX ANCHOR MARIA BARTIROMO: All right, so we got a PPI of up 1.4% versus an estimate of 5 tenths or 6 tenths. And then you had the 6% year over year number, and as soon as those numbers hit the tape, the market went from down about 100 to down 269 on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. So we are now deeper in the red!

Cheryl, thank you.

Watch above via Fox Business Network’s Mornings With Maria.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!