Crude Oil Price Manipulated In advance of Sampling Date for Producer Price Index?

By: Rob_Kirby

Today I telephoned the good folks at the Bureau of Labor Statistics in Washington, D.C. I phoned to find out a little bit more about how one of the key inputs – CRUDE OIL - in PPI [Producer Price Index] is determined each and every month. 

Here's the nuts of what I was told: “Crude oil price data inputs for the PPI are measured from sources of the subject month on the Tuesday of the week that contains the 13 th day.”

Sounds good to me.

Now, let's take a look at a chart of one proxy for crude oil – WTI – West Texas Intermediate:

Interesting to note that in a rising market, the sample dates tend to be the “lows for the month” – consistently - even in instances when prices were higher just prior to the sample date.

Many of our financial markets clearly exhibit the finger prints of the same “Orwellian” invisible hand.

By Rob Kirby
http://www.kirbya nalytics.com/

Rob Kirby is the editor of the Kirby Analytics Bi-weekly Online Newsletter, which provides proprietry Macroeconomic Research.

Many of Rob's published articles are archived at http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/kirby/archive.html , and edited by Mary Puplava of http://www.financialsense.com

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