WHOLESALE GOODS PRICES JUMPED THE MOST SINCE BLS STARTED COUNTING IN 2009 — BONDS RALLIED ANYWAY — BITCOIN AND ITS MINERS GOT SOLD WITH THE AI TRADE

At 8:30 AM ET on October 15, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said producer prices rose 1.3% in September and 6.3% over 12 months, the most since 2022. Goods rose 2.6%, the most since BLS started counting in 2009. Wholesale gasoline jumped 20.3% in a month, and diesel sold to businesses rose 21.0%.

A print that hot is supposed to sink bonds. It didn’t. The long-bond fund TLT opened 2.0% higher at 9:30 AM ET and was still up 1.9% at 10:15, on Alpha Vantage. Reuters tied the bond buying to worries about AI companies’ debt. Fed officials Michelle Bowman and Mary Daly had said the Fed could wait for a clearer picture before its October 27-28 meeting.

Bitcoin didn’t get that bid. It slipped 0.4% in the five minutes after the release, touched $79,676 on Alpha Vantage around 9:55 AM ET, after stocks opened, and was back above $81,000 by 10:15. The miners that rebuilt themselves as AI landlords fell harder. By 10:15 AM ET IREN was down 12.4%, Cipher Mining 10.5% and TeraWulf 8.8%, after each lost more than 12% on October 14, per Cointelegraph.

Read it straight. Wholesale prices are running 6.3% hot, and two Fed officials are talking about waiting while AI debt wobbles. When the choice is between the dollar and the borrowers, the borrowers usually win. That is the oldest bitcoin argument there is, and it doesn’t show up on the day the print hits. At the time of this writing, bitcoin was $82,160.