U.S. producer prices rise below consensus expectations

U.S. producer prices came in below consensus expectations. On a sequential basis, producer prices rose 0.1 percent, as compared with the consensus expectations of 0.2 percent. The headline print was stimulated by energy prices, which rose 1.8 percent sequentially after having fallen sharply the previous three months.

Food prices dropped 0.3 percent sequentially, the second straight negative print. Trade margins, which is another volatile component in this report, dropped 0.4 percent sequentially. In all, the February print indicates towards soft pipeline price pressures outside of the recovery in energy prices, noted Barclays in a research report. Even if a lot of the softness came from volatile components such as transport and warehousing, trade margins, and food prices, there was no solid momentum building up in the other core components either. For instance, excluding food, energy, and trade, PPI rose just 0.1 percent sequentially.

The personal consumption PPI rose 0.1 percent sequentially and 1.6 percent year-on-year in February, after having dropped modestly in the earlier two months. Excluding food, energy and trade, the personal consumption was up 0.4 percent sequentially and 2.4 percent year-on-year.

At 17:00 GMT the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of US Dollar was slightly bearish at -59.0856 more details on FxWirePro's Currency Strength Index, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex