Inflation

Whole sale prices soared.

The Labor Department reported Tuesday that wholesale prices rose by 1.1 percent last month, the largest increase since a 2.6 percent rise last November. The November gain in the Producer Price Index was the biggest one-month jump in 33 years.

Analysts had expected a much more moderate 0.4 percent rise in wholesale prices for the month. However, food costs, which had fallen by 0.5 percent in February, leapt by 1.2 percent last month, propelled upward by big gains in vegetables and beef and the biggest increase in rice prices in more than five years. Those were far higher increases in food prices than expected.

Core inflation, which excludes energy and food, was better behaved last month, rising by just 0.2 percent, down from a worrisome 0.5 percent rise in February.

But with the crude oil price rising to a record close of $113.79 per barrel on Tuesday, analysts said consumers should be braced for more bad inflation news to come.

"Wholesale prices are rising and the consumer should expect more shocks at the supermarket and the gas station," said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors.

Conservative economics at work.