U.S. wholesale prices last month, 0.2% month-on-month ↑...below one's expectations

The U.S. producer price index rose 0.2% month-on-month last month, below Dow Jones' forecast of 0.4% and up 3.3% from a year ago.

The U.S. Labor Department said the core producer price index, which excludes energy and food, rose 0.1% month-on-month, also below the 0.3% forecast and 3.3% from a year ago.

Prices of final-demand goods, including energy prices, which jumped 3.5% from the previous month, rose 0.6% from the previous month, driving producer prices higher, but food prices, which contributed to higher producer prices in the previous month, fell 0.1% from the previous month.

While the price of final demand services remained unchanged compared to the previous month, the market is paying keen attention to price trends amid concerns that the slowdown in inflation has stopped on and off Wall Street.

Producer prices, also called wholesale prices, are accepted as leading indicators of consumer prices in that they are reflected in final consumer goods prices with a certain time lag.