NEW YORK • Investors examine the same key economic reports at the start of every month — on manufacturing, the service sector and employment. This week, they’ll look at these indicators for inflation clues as much as they will for insight into economic growth.

WASHINGTON - Wholesale inflation slowed in April after a big jump in March, but the improvement is likely to be temporary as consumers are battered in the coming months by rising prices for gasoline, food and a host of other items.

An unwelcome visitor to the economy is back — inflation. The year-end figures for 2007 show an inflation rate of 4.1 percent, up from a relatively restrained 2.5 percent for 2006 and the highest in 17 years.

WASHINGTON - Consumer inflation eased a bit in April even though gasoline prices surged for a second straight month.

WASHINGTON - Consumer inflation slowed in June, helped by a temporary drop in energy prices. But the improvement was expected to be short-lived with a new crisis in the Middle East pushing crude oil to record highs.

NEW YORK - Several recent government reports indicate that inflation is heating up. What can consumers do to protect their savings — and preserve their buying power?

WASHINGTON - The Federal Reserve’s laser-like focus on inflation has investors parsing every scrap of pricing data that crosses their desks. The conclusion many have reached: Inflation isn’t as bad as the Fed seems to think it is.

The Labor Department reported Tuesday that wholesale prices rose by just 0.2 percent in May, a big drop from the past two months. But core inflation, excluding food and energy, showed an increase of 0.3 percent, faster than analysts had expected.

WASHINGTON - Inflation at the wholesale level plunged by the largest amount in nearly three years in February as the price of food and energy products including gasoline fell sharply.

WASHINGTON - Inflation, after spiking at the start of the year, slowed sharply in February, reflecting large declines in fuel prices and the cost of clothing. The Consumer Price Index edged up 0.1 percent last month, the Labor Department reported Thursday. An increase of 0.7 percent in January was driven by higher energy costs.

NEW YORK - Coming to a store near you: even higher prices.

WASHINGTON — American families were squeezed last year as their inflation-adjusted weekly wages fell 1.6 percent - the sharpest drop since 1990 - even as consumer prices rose only modestly.

The three-year housing boom in Arizona that ended in 2006 skewed the state's population figures, leading to projections that planners, economists and government officials agree are inflated.

NEW YORK - Stocks tumbled Tuesday as a troubling reading on wholesale inflation underscored the drag of high energy prices on the economy. Investors, also growing anxious again about banks’ credit woes, sent the Dow Jones industrial average down more than 100 points.

NEW YORK - No good news today on the economic front. Consumer confidence plunged, the wholesale inflation rate soared, the number of homes being foreclosed jumped, home prices fell sharply and a report predicts big increases in health care costs.

Those frequent companions on the world stage, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, share much in common — virulent anti-U.S. rhetoric, an inflated sense of their importance in the world, a boorish manner that alarms even their friends. And the two share something else: Neither is much of an economist.

WASHINGTON - Higher costs for energy and food last year pushed inflation up by the largest amount in 17 years, even though prices generally remained tame outside of those two areas. Meanwhile, industrial output was flat in December, more evidence of a significant slowdown in the economy.

NEW YORK - Wall Street surged again Thursday, launching the Dow Jones industrial average to its best two-day advance since last July after data showed that wholesale inflation, excluding energy and food costs, is rising at a gentle pace.

NEW YORK - Wall Street resumed its advance Friday as investors interpreted a government report of milder inflation as a signal that the Federal Reserve might consider cutting interest rates later this year. The Dow Jones industrial average soared more than 100 points, and posted its fifth straight weekly gain.

CHICAGO - Consumers had cause to cheer, or at least applaud politely, this week when the government forecast summer gasoline prices slightly below last year’s.

NEW YORK - Stocks slid for a second straight session Wednesday after an increase in labor costs stirred concerns about inflation and interest rates and as the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury flirted with 5 percent. The Dow Jones industrials fell more than 120 points.

NEW YORK - Stocks fell Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke chided investors who may have looked past long-standing concerns about inflation. The Dow Jones industrials fell nearly 100 points, the third straight session of declines.

The recent maniacal shopping spree by the Cubs may have thrown cold water on the idea of Jerry Colangelo buying into the team.