US producer price inflation bounced in July to its highest reading since 2022, data showed Thursday, with underlying signs that businesses are facing pressures from President Donald Trump’s tariffs.The rise in services costs exceeded that in goods, contributing to a markedly larger advance than analysts expected.But economists noted that the headline increase might be overstated — boosted by a range of volatile factors — even as there are also price gains in goods exposed to tariffs.The producer price index (PPI) rose 0.9 percent on a month-on-month basis after a flat reading in June, said the Department of Labor.A Briefing.com analyst consensus forecast expected a much smaller jump of 0.2 percent.The PPI measures changes in producers’ prices, and the report is seen by some as a bellwether for what consumers could face in the months ahead if firms choose to pass on more costs.On Wall Street, all three major US indexes retreated after the report but generally shook off early losses.Businesses have been grappling with Trump’s sweeping tariffs after he targeted most trading partners with a 10-percent levy this year, alongside steeper levels on sectors like steel and aluminum.The latest numbers took the overall PPI figure to 3.3 percent from a year ago, said the Bureau of Labor Statistics.The cost uptick in goods was 0.7 percent while that of services was 1.1 percent — marking the biggest such jump since March 2022 as well.While the advance was “broad-based” in July, more than three-quarters can be traced to services, the Labor Department said. Much of this was due to trade services, relating to changes in margins for wholesalers and retailers. Economists noted this was a sign that trade disruptions are hitting supply chains, though trade services are also a volatile component.Prices for final demand goods made a big advance too, with 40 percent of the July increase traced to foods.- Fed dilemma -All of this complicates the Federal Reserve’s job as it seeks to balance inflation risks with the health of the labor market in mulling the right time for the next interest rate cut.Fed policymakers have been monitoring the impact of tariffs on consumer inflation, with some officials arguing the hit will be one-off and others cautious about more persistent effects.”Input costs for producers jumped in July as price pressures for businesses build from compounding tariff impacts,” said Nationwide senior economist Ben Ayers in a note.”While businesses have assumed the majority of tariff costs increases so far, margins are being increasingly squeezed by higher costs for imported goods,” he added.He said that tariff price hikes were most obvious within metal and food categories, with readings for steel and aluminum — both targeted with 50-percent levies — jumping in recent months and adding to cost concerns for manufacturers.Ayers expects more of the tariff burden borne by companies so far to pass through to consumer prices in the coming months.”Tariff-exposed goods are rising at a rapid clip, indicating that the willingness and ability of businesses to absorb tariff costs may be beginning to wane,” added Matthew Martin, senior US economist at Oxford Economics.The effects of Trump’s tariffs on consumer inflation have been limited for now, with a key gauge — the consumer price index — steady at 2.7 percent in July.This, combined with government employment data showing that recent hiring numbers were significantly weaker than estimated, has raised the odds of a September rate cut by the central bank.Martin said the PPI data “provides a counter-balance to these reports” and highlights the Fed’s dilemma.”The big picture remains that inflation is further away from the Fed’s target than the unemployment rate and is likely to climb further over the coming months,” he said.”The path forward will have to traverse a tight rope between the next employment and price reports,” Martin added.

California unveiled plans to redraw its electoral districts Thursday, as Democrats push back on what they say is Donald Trump’s effort to rig next year’s Congressional elections to safeguard his slim Republican majority.Governor Gavin Newsom said he would ask voters to approve new maps that would effectively neutralize changes Texas is planning that are expected to give Republicans more seats in the House of Representatives.”Today is Liberation Day in the State of California,” Newsom told supporters at the Democracy Center in Los Angeles.”Donald Trump, you have poked the bear, and we will punch back,” he said, a reference to the animal that symbolizes the 39-million strong state.The move came after weeks of maneuvering in Texas, where Governor Greg Abbott — acting at Trump’s behest — is trying to redraw electoral districts to benefit his Republican Party, a process known as gerrymandering.Districts are usually redrawn every ten years after the national census and are supposed to be based on its findings, so that districts accurately represent the people who live there.The mid-decade effort to change the boundaries is seen by Democrats as a naked attempt to bolster the GOP, and to help it retain its narrow House majority in next year’s mid-terms.Dozens of Texas Democrats have fled the state in an effort to block the passage of the proposed blueprint during a special legislative session, even as Republicans have threatened to arrest them.Newsom said a special ballot on November 4 would ask California voters to create temporary congressional districts for the next two elections, with power to set boundaries returned to an independent commission thereafter.”We’re doing this in reaction to a president of the United States that called a sitting governor of the state of Texas and said, ‘find me five seats.'”He is, once again, trying to rig the system. He doesn’t play by a different set of rules; he doesn’t believe in the rules.”We have got to recognize the cards that have been dealt, and we have got to meet fire with fire.”Newsom, who is believed to harbor Oval Office ambitions, has emerged as a leading anti-Trump voice from a Democratic Party still floundering after last year’s ballot box drubbing.The two men have frequently locked horns, including over aggressive immigration enforcement raids the administration ordered in Los Angeles.In June, after thousands took to the streets to protest seemingly indiscriminate arrests by masked and unidentified agents, Trump sent in the National Guard and the Marines, claiming it was necessary to restore order.On Thursday, masked Border Patrol agents were seen outside the Democracy Center, part of a museum in the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles, despite there being no obvious presence of their usual arrest targets.Newsom’s press conference came after he had trolled Trump for days on social media, aping the president’s instantly recognizable style.A series of all-caps posts from Newsom’s official account have employed Trumpian language and been sprinkled liberally — if not logically — with punctuation, as well as nicknames, boasts and silly-sounding threats.”DONNIE J. AND KaroLYIN’ LEAVITT WILL HAVE THEIR (LITTLE) HANDS “FULL” TODAY,” read one tweet on Thursday, referring to the president and his press spokeswoman.”I, GAVIN CHRISTOPHER NEWSOM, AMERICA’S FAVORITE GOVERNOR (MANY SAY), WILL HOST THE GREATEST PRESS CONFERENCE OF ALL TIME. AFTER THAT — “THE MAPS” WILL SOON BE RELEASED. VERY MUCH ANTICIPATED.”

US President Donald Trump insisted Thursday he would not be intimidated by Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the eve of a high-stakes summit and said Ukraine would be involved in any deal on its fate.Putin flies to Alaska on Friday at the invitation of Trump in his first visit to a Western country since he ordered the 2022 invasion of Ukraine that has killed tens of thousands of people.As Russia made gains on the battlefield, the Kremlin said the two presidents planned to meet one-on-one, heightening fears of European leaders that Putin will cajole Trump into a settlement imposed on Ukraine.Trump insisted to reporters at the White House: “I am president, and he’s not going to mess around with me.””I’ll know within the first two minutes, three minutes, four minutes or five minutes… whether or not we’re going to have a good meeting or a bad meeting,” Trump said.”And if it’s a bad meeting, it’ll end very quickly, and if it’s a good meeting, we’re going to end up getting peace in the pretty near future,” said Trump, who gave the summit a one in four chance of failure.Trump has voiced admiration for Putin in the past and faced wide criticism after a 2018 summit in Helsinki where he appeared to accept the Russian’s denials of US intelligence on Moscow’s meddling in US elections.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was not invited to the Alaska summit, which he has denounced as a reward to Putin, and has refused Trump’s calls to surrender territory.Trump promised not to finalize any deal with Putin and said he hoped to hold a three-way summit with Zelensky, possibly immediately afterward in Alaska.”The second meeting is going to be very, very important, because that’s going to be a meeting where they make a deal. And I don’t want to use the word ‘divvy’ things up. But you know, to a certain extent, it’s not a bad term,” Trump told Fox News Radio.Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters any future deal needed also to ensure “security guarantees” for Ukraine.But Trump has previously backed Russia’s stance in ruling out letting Ukraine join NATO.- Shifting Trump tone -Trump had boasted that he could end the war within 24 hours of returning to the White House in January.But his calls to Putin — and intense pressure on Zelensky to accept concessions — have failed to move the Russian leader and Trump has warned of “very severe consequences” if Putin keeps snubbing his overtures.Putin on Thursday welcomed US diplomacy which he said could also help yield an agreement on nuclear arms control.”The US administration… is making quite energetic and sincere efforts to end the fighting,” Putin told a meeting of top officials in Moscow.The talks are set to begin at 11:30 am (1930 GMT) Friday at the Elmendorf Air Force Base, a major US military installation in Alaska that has been crucial in monitoring Russia.”This conversation will take place in a one-on-one format, naturally with the participation of interpreters,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters in Moscow.- European support for Zelensky -Zelensky met in London with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who vowed solidarity, a day after receiving support in Berlin.Russia has made major gains on the ground ahead of the summit.Ukraine on Thursday issued a mandatory evacuation of families with children from the eastern town of Druzhkivka and four nearby villages near an area where Russia made a swift breakthrough.Russian forces had on Tuesday swiftly advanced by up to 10 kilometers (six miles) in a narrow section of the front line, their biggest gain in a 24-hour period in more than a year, according to an AFP analysis of data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War.  Ukraine in turn Thursday fired dozens of drones at Russia, wounding several people and sparking fires at an oil refinery in the southern city of Volgograd.Diplomacy since Russia’s invasion has largely failed to secure agreements beyond swaps of prisoners.Russia said Thursday it had returned 84 prisoners to Ukraine in exchange for an equal number of Russian POWs in the latest exchange.burs-sct/bjt