Wall Street Journal (07/15/15) Josh Mitchell; Eric Morath

The producer-price index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.4% in June after jumping 0.5% in May, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Wednesday, a sign inflation is slowly picking up from historically weak levels. Core prices, which strip out volatile energy and food components, grew 0.3% in June, the biggest jump since October. Prices last month increased more than most analysts expected. Economists surveyed by Wall Street Journal predicted overall producer prices to climb 0.2% and core prices to climb 0.1%.