US wholesale prices surged 4% last month after the war in Iran sent energy prices soaring

U.S. wholesale prices surged last month as the Iran war drove up the cost of energy. The Labor Department reported Tuesday that its producer price index — which measures inflation before it hits consumers — rose 0.5% from February and 4% from March 2025. Energy prices surged 8.5% from February. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core producer prices rose a modest 0.1% from February and 3.8% from a year earlier. The gains in wholesale prices were smaller than economists had forecast.