Wholesale inflation came in as expected for October, keeping the Federal Reserve on track to cut interest rates at its December meeting. As with the consumer inflation data released a day earlier, core prices remained hotter than the headline figure.

Wholesale Producer Price Index inflation rose 0.2% in October and is up 2.4% annually, according to a Thursday report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Getting inflation back down to 2% is proving to be a grind. Prices paid to producers for their output climbed by 0.2% last month and 2.4% in the 12 months through October, an uptick from the rate in September, according to the Labor Department. Economists ...