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8:30 AM ET, Jul 18, 2007 - 3 minutes ago
U.S. real weekly earnings up 1.3% in past year
U.S. June CPI medical care prices rise 0.2%
U.S. June CPI owners equivalent rent rises 0.2%
U.S. June CPI food prices rise 0.5%
U.S. June CPI energy prices fall 0.5%
U.S. CPI up 2.7% in past year; core CPI up 2.2%
U.S. June core CPI up 0.2% as expected
U.S. June CPI up 0.2% vs. 0.1% expected

ECONOMIC REPORT: CPI increases moderate 0.2% in headline and core; Falling energy prices offset higher food prices in June inflation report
By Rex Nutting, MarketWatch Last Update: 8:30 AM ET Jul 18, 2007

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - U.S. consumer prices increased a moderate 0.2% in June, with falling energy prices offsetting rising food prices, the Labor Department said Wednesday.
It's the smallest increase in the seasonally adjusted consumer price index since January.
Excluding volatile food and energy prices, the core consumer price index also increased 0.2%, the government said.
Inflation was just a bit stronger than expected. Economists were expecting the CPI to rise 0.1% and the core rate to rise 0.2%.
Consumer prices are up 2.7% in the past 12 months; core inflation is up 2.2%. In May, the CPI rose 0.7% while the core CPI was up just 0.1%.
The key inflation report comes just 90 minutes before Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke begins two days of testimony on Capitol Hill. Bernanke is expected to hew closely to the Fed's well-worn script that inflationary pressures remain the largest risk to a stable economy, despite worries about housing, credit markets and consumer spending.
With inflation moderating and weekly pay up, real average weekly earnings rose 0.5% in June and are up 1.3% in the past year.
The Fed is worried that tight labor markets will pressure companies to raise prices to cover their higher labor costs. So far, however, real wage gains are not getting too far ahead of productivity increases.

Details
Energy prices fell 0.5% in June after surging the previous three months at an annual rate of more than 70%. In June, gasoline prices fell 1.1% and natural gas prices fell 0.1%.
Gasoline prices have inched higher in recent weeks, however.
Food prices continued to climb, rising 0.5% in the month. Dairy prices rose 3.2%, and poultry prices rose 2.1%, on higher prices for corn as a feed for poultry and livestock. Fresh fruit and vegetable prices fell.
Food prices are up at an annual rate of 5.1% in the past three months, driven higher by adverse weather, strong global demand and the diversion of much of the corn crop and the nation's arable land into the production of ethanol for fuel.
Outside of food prices, inflation was generally tame in June. Medical care prices rose 0.2%, housing prices rose 0.3% and apparel prices fell 0.6%.
Tobacco prices rose 0.5% and are rising at nearly a 10% pace through the first six months of the year.
Details of the report were mixed.
Ownership equivalent rent, which accounts for nearly 24% of the CPI, rose 0.2% in June, a signal that the housing bust may now be working to lower the CPI.
Hotel fares, on the other hand, jumped 2.5%.
Prescription drug prices fell 0.1%, the seventh decline in the past nine months.
New car and truck prices were unchanged. Airfares rose 0.9%.

The Fed
The Fed monitors a different but related inflation measure produced by the Commerce Department, known as the personal consumption expenditure price index, which will be released at the end of the month. The core PCE price index has risen 1.9% in the past year, just inside the Fed's unofficial comfort zone of 1% to 2%.
The Fed has left interest rates unchanged for more than a year now and has signaled that interest rates could be steady at 5.25% for quite a while.
On Tuesday, the Labor Department said the producer price index fell 0.2%, while core prices at the wholesale level rose 0.3% as car and truck prices increased by more than 1%


U.S. June single-family housing starts fall 0.2%
U.S. June building permits down 25.2% year-over-year
U.S. June housing starts rise 2.3% to 1.467 million pace
U.S. June housing starts down 19.4% year-over-year
U.S. June building permits fall 7.5% to 1.406 million pace

By Robert Schroeder Last Update: 8:30 AM ET Jul 18, 2007
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Housing starts rose in the U.S. in June, but building permits fell, pointing to a mixed housing picture last month. The Commerce Department reported that starts of new homes rose by 2.3%, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.467 million in June, the quickest pace since April. But year over year, June's housing starts are down 19.4%. Building permits sank by 7.5% in June. The pace of 1.406 million is the highest since last month but still at a 10-year low. Permits for single family homes fell by 4.1%. Analysts surveyed by MarketWatch were expecting starts to fall to 1.45 million and permits to fall to 1.48 million.