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By STAN CHOE, Associated Press Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Most stocks are falling on Wall Street Thursday after a disappointing report said inflation was worse last month at the U.S. wholesale level than economists expected.

Three out of every four stocks in the S&P 500 index dropped, though gains for some influential Big Tech companies helped mask the losses. The index at the heart of many 401(k) accounts edged down by 0.1% from its all-time high set the day before.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 79 points, or 0.2%, as of 10:20 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was shaving less than 0.1% off its record set the day before. read more

Danielle Labotka of Morningstar

Why do so many of us struggle to save?

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Saving for the future can be difficult because of a cognitive bias known as hyperbolic discounting: our tendency to place greater weight on immediate satisfaction, even if focusing on the long term will have a greater payoff. This bias is why, when you get a raise, you may consider getting a new car—incurring a higher monthly payment—instead of sacking away more money each month for retirement and perhaps getting to retire several years earlier.

Feeling stressed about finances can also get you off track with your savings. While some people respond to financial stress by saving more, others respond by spending more in order to regain feelings of control. read more

By Gerson Freitas Jr., Bloomberg News

American beef lovers may face even leaner plates and higher prices next year as US production shrinks to a decade low and tariffs limit imports, according to a US government projection.

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Total beef supply in the US is expected to drop 2.5% in 2026 to 31.1 billion pounds — the lowest since 2019 — the US Department of Agriculture said in a monthly report. The decline threatens to push record beef prices even higher, with tariffs limiting importers’ ability to soften the blow.

US beef supplies have been constrained by a shrinking herd. For years, ranchers have been culling cows due to a combination of persistent drought and high costs, reducing the domestic inventory to its lowest level in several decades. read more

By MATT OTT, Associated Press Business Writer

The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits fell modestly last week, remaining in the historically low range since the U.S. economy emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Applications for unemployment benefits for the week ending Aug. 9 fell by 3,000 to 224,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s below the 230,000 new applications that economists had forecast.

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Weekly applications for jobless benefits are seen as a proxy for U.S. layoffs and have mostly settled in a historically healthy range between 200,000 and 250,000 since COVID-19 throttled the economy in the spring of 2020. read more

By PAUL WISEMAN, Associated Press Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. wholesale inflation surged unexpectedly last month, signaling that President Donald Trump’s sweeping taxes on imports are pushing costs up and that higher prices for consumers may be on the way.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that its producer price index — which measures inflation before it hits consumers— rose 0.9% last month from June, biggest jump in more than three years. Compared with a year earlier, wholesale prices rose 3.3%.

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The numbers were much higher than economists had expected. read more