By Jeffry Bartash
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - U.S. wholesale prices jumped a seasonally adjusted 1.7% in August, mainly because of higher fuel prices, the Labor Department said Thursday. Excluding the volatile categories of food and energy, so-called core wholesale prices rose a much smaller 0.2%. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had predicted a 1.5% increase in the overall producer price index and a 0.2% rise in core PPI. The energy index surged 6.4%, led by a 13.6% increase in gasoline and an 11.9% rise in natural gas. The wholesale cost of food, meanwhile, rose a sharp 0.9%, as the price of eggs and dairy went up. Over the past year wholesale prices have risen an unadjusted 2.0%, or 2.5% at the core level.
