Wholesale price index

An index of prices at the wholesale level, dominated by manufactured goods and commodities rather than services.

For a company analyst it is often more useful than the consumer index, because it tracks input costs directly. A manufacturer's gross margin usually correlates better with wholesale inflation than with consumer inflation.

The gap between the two indices is itself a signal: wholesale running far above consumer means input costs are rising faster than companies can pass them on, and margins are about to compress.

Watch the spread between them.