Wholesale prices moved higher for the second week in a row, prompting Black Book to look deeper into its data and declare why the month has “started off fast.”

While just an uptick of 0.03%, Black Book acknowledged the string of positive market gains hasn’t happened since last June.

“The newer, 0-to-2-year-old units experienced even larger increases than the 2-to-8-year-old units that are typically featured in our report,” Black Book said in its latest installment of Market Insights released on Valentine’s Day.

“The overall market for the younger units increased 0.12%, compared with the 2-to-8-year old’s that increased 0.03%. Older model years, 8-to-16-year-old units, increased only slightly less than the newest model years, with an uptick of 0.10%,” analysts continued.

On a volume-weighted basis, Black Book said four of the nine car segments increased in value during the week that finished on the day before the Super Bowl.

Perhaps a spring market indicator, analysts noticed prices for sporty cars have been on the upswing for the past four weeks. But last week, Black Book noticed the segment increased significantly, climbing by 0.61%.

Analysts mentioned sub-compact cars were the only mainstream car segment to report a price decline last week. However, while the overall segment declined, Black Book noted that the 0-to-2-year-old units in this segment increased by 0.02%.

Black Book indicated that five of the 13 truck segments posted price increases last week, pushing the overall segment up by 0.04% on a volume-weighted basis.

Analysts said prices for small pickups (up 0.53%) and compact crossovers (up 0.34%) generated the largest increases last week. This was the first week of value increases for the small pickup segment since June.

Sub-Compact crossovers (down 0.11%) and sub-compact luxury crossovers (down 0.44%) declined for the 2-to-8-year-old models, but their newer variants increased, 0.11% and 0.02%, respectively, according to Black Book data.

Analysts wrapped up their wholesale price discussion by mentioning the estimated average weekly sales rate increased to 49% last week.

“February has started off fast,” Black Book said. “For the second week in a row now, we’ve seen auction sales-rate increase across the country. With this and some increases in wholesale prices over the past two weeks.

“February is setting up to be a strong month, if these trends continue for the rest of the month. We are starting to see more 2023 vehicles hitting the auction lanes with a majority of them having very low miles. Additionally, higher trim levels are selling at or over original MSRP. As always, we will be watching for new trends or changes in the market,” analysts went on to say.