Lots of economic data this morning: Initial jobless claims declined for the third consecutive week as the U.S. labor market continued its recovery from last year’s recession.  New claims for jobless benefits totaled 375,000 last week, the Labor Department said this morning, matching estimates.  Jobless claims numbers have come down sharply since the spring as the economy has recovered, and they have settled near the 400,000 level in recent weeks. The four-week average is now 396,250 initial claims.

U.S. wholesale prices rose sharply in July for the sixth month in a row and offered little evidence that a big wave of inflation is on the verge of cresting. The producer price index jumped 1% last month, well ahead of expectations. The pace of wholesale inflation over the past 12 months moved up to 7.8% from 7.3% in June. That’s the highest level since the index was reconfigured in 2010, and on an adjusted basis, one of the highest readings since the early 1980s.

Scale is the name of the game in the unprofitable food-delivery business: DoorDash is said to have held talks to purchase Instacart over the past two months that may value the grocery delivery company at $40B to $50B. The talks fell apart in recent weeks at least partly over regulatory concerns that the Biden administration may not allow a combination.