By Jeffry Bartash
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - U.S. wholesale prices rose a seasonally adjusted 0.4% in February, the fastest increase in five months, sparked by higher petroleum costs, the Labor Department said Thursday. Excluding the volatile categories of food and energy, core wholesale prices rose a smaller 0.2%. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had predicted a 0.5% increase in the overall producer price index and a 0.2% rise in core PPI. Energy prices jumped 1.3%, mainly because of a 4.3% increase in gasoline. Yet the cost of natural gas sank 14%, the biggest drop in four years, partly because of unseasonably warm weather. The wholesale cost of food, meanwhile, dipped 0.1% to mark the third straight decline. Over the past year wholesale prices have risen an unadjusted 3.3%, the smallest 12-month change since August 2010.
