The Dallas region noted strong overseas sales of high-tech products. The Fed regions of Cleveland, Richmond, Chicago and Kansas City all reported continued high demand for exports.

Meanwhile, food manufacturers in the Fed's San Francisco region said they are continuing to operate at, or near, full tilt because of persistently high demand.

Turning to inflation, all Fed regions described "overall price pressures as elevated or increasing," the Fed report said.

Businesses continued to be hit by rising prices for fuel, metals, food and chemicals, among other things. Many Fed regions said manufacturers planned to raise prices to customers as a way of coping with the higher production costs. Some worried about a drop in customer demand and overall sales volume because of price hikes.

Some companies in the Philadelphia Fed region indicated that sluggish demand has made it difficult to raise prices. Meanwhile, some businesses in the Atlanta region were hesitant to pass along their higher costs as price increases because of cutbacks in discretionary spending by consumers.

Retail prices went up in several Fed regions. In the Kansas City region, for instance, companies reported higher prices at hotels, restaurant and resorts. Chicago retailers reported raising prices charged to consumers in response to higher wholesale prices.

By contrast, the Fed regions of New York and Cleveland reported relatively stable retail prices. One major retail chain in New York said that while costs under existing contracts were not up substantially, "some escalation in prices was expected within the next year," the Fed report said.

The government last week reported that consumer prices in June rose at the second-fastest pace in a quarter century. Wholesale prices went up sharply, too.

In a dose of good news, oil prices retreated Wednesday. They are now hovering above $127.44 a barrel. Oil prices marched to a new high above $147 a barrel less than two weeks ago, but have been ebbing in recent sessions.

At the gas pump, prices dipped. A gallon of regular dropped more than a penny to an average of $4.042 nationwide, according to auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express.

On the jobs front, most Fed regions said employment conditions were about the same or slightly weaker. Employers have cut jobs for six straight months as they try to keep work forces lean amid the economic slowdown. Housing, credit and financial problems all have weighed on growth. The unemployment rate, at 5.5 percent in June, is expected to climb in the months ahead.

Wage pressures, meanwhile, were described as "generally modest." Economists look to wages for clues about inflation.

Businesses in the Fed regions of Cleveland, Atlanta, Chicago and Kansas City reported very little upward wage pressures, except for very skilled workers and those in the energy field. But the Boston and Dallas regions said more workers were requesting higher wages to supplement cost of living increases.

Bernanke has said he doesn't see a repeat of the 1970s-style situation where workers demanded — and got — higher wages to keep up with ever-rising prices. But Charles Plosser, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, has warned that the Fed shouldn't wait for signs of something like that to emerge before taking corrective action.

Plosser, an inflation hawk, has warned that the Fed might need to start to raise rates sooner rather than later to thwart inflation — even if the economy stays fragile.

The Fed's survey is based on information supplied by the its 12 regional banks. The information was collected before July 14.