the numbers us wholesale prices rose 04 in september to mark the first increase in three months signaling little progress in the federal reserve’s fight to vanquish high inflation economists polled by the wall street journal had forecast a 02 gain the increase in wholesale prices over the past year fell slightly to 85 from 87 in the prior month but inflation is still running near a 40year high a separate measure of wholesale prices that strips out volatile food and energy costs also increase 04 last month the government said wednesday that was a larger than expected the increase in these socalled core prices over the past year was flat at 56 the change in wholesale prices offers clues on how much inflation is increasing the consumer price index due on thursday morning gives a better idea of how much the cost of living is going up for us households big picture the fed’s belated but aggressive strategy to raise interest rates to slash inflation hasn’t shown much effect so far prices are still rising rapidly yet if the economy slows as expected inflation is bound to slow when consumers and businesses buy less the decline in demand typically forces prices to level off or even fall the big danger is that the fed’s approach could tip the economy into recession many economists predict the us will suffer a downturn within the next year market reaction the dow jones industrial average djia and sp 500 spx were set to open higher in wednesday trades