The Labor Department reported that wholesales prices dropped 0.9% last month, which tripled the decline that economists were expecting. This pushed the decline of wholesale prices over the last 12 months to 6.8%, the biggest decline since 1947. The decline was primarily driven by big decreases in both energy and food costs. For the month of July, wholesale energy prices dipped 2.4% and food prices fell by 1.5%.
Overall, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.6%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.8% and the Nasdaq was up 0.7% in morning trading.
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Kevin Grewal contributed to this article.