Where prices did climb — warehousing and transportation — points to an inventory build. Upcoming CPI will make the inflation picture clearer.

There are growing concerns about the stickiness of inflation and fears that the Federal Reserve may have to keep interest rates restrictively high for longer.

A gauge of wholesale inflation rose 0.2% in December from November, a softer reading than economists expected and a slowdown from the prior month. The producer-price index, published by the Labor Department on Tuesday,