U.S. data show benign inflation, steady growth pace

U.S. import prices fell in October as the cost of petroleum and a range of goods declined, indicating that a strong dollar and soft global demand continued to exert downward pressure on imported inflation. Other data on Tuesday showed a surprise increase in wholesale inventories in September, suggesting that the slowdown in economic growth in the third quarter was not as abrupt as initially believed. The Labor Department said import prices dropped 0.5 percent last month after declining 0.6 perce