Wholesale prices rose 0.3 percent in January, driven up by big increases in the cost of new cars, cigarettes and alcohol, a development that could lead the Federal Reserve moving toward steeper interest-rate increases.

Overall, the producer price index, which measures prices received by farms, factories and refineries, rose just 0.3 percent in the month, the Labor Department said.

But the core index, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, shot up 0.8 percent, the biggest gain since December 1998.

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