The daily business briefing: February 16, 2022

Producer prices make biggest monthly jump since May 2021, Remington agrees to $73 million Sandy Hook settlement, and more

Remington rifles
Remington rifles
(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

1. Producer prices rose 1 percent in January

The Labor Department reported Tuesday that producer prices rose by a seasonally adjusted 1 percent in January, up from a 0.4 percent increase in December. The increase, the biggest jump since May 2021, came as a coronavirus surge driven by the highly contagious Omicron variant extended supply-chain disruptions as consumer demand remained strong, according to economists. Producer prices increased by 9.7 percent over the preceding year, about the same increase as the government reported the previous month. "Overall, producer prices remain elevated and close to historic highs," said Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics. The new data added support for the Federal Reserve to roll back its efforts to boost the recovery to keep the economy from overheating.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.