Wherever Bob Humphreys looks, things are getting more expensive.
The chief executive of Delta Apparel, a Greenville, S.C., clothing maker, sees higher costs at every link in a multinational supply chain: Raw materials, such as cotton; energy to run his factories; transportation to move his goods to market — all are getting pricier. With higher wages looming, he’s passing on some of those extra costs by raising prices on Delta Apparel’s plain and decorated T-shirts and fleeces.
“Clearly, there is inflation in the apparel delivery system right now,” Humphreys told investors on a recent call. “So there’s definitely cost increases coming.”
That’s exactly what spooked Wall Street this week, triggering a brief stock market rout that shaved roughly 9 percent off the Dow Jones industrial average’s record high. A pair of recent government reports showing that American workers were finally enjoying sustained pay raises convinced many on Wall Street that the economy — for the first time in a long time — was in danger of overheating.
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