Business Sales Rise 0.4% Inventories Up 0.3%

WASHINGTON — Business inventories rose 0.3% in June on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Commerce Department reported Friday.

Sales were up 0.4%. The inventories-to-sales ratio was 1.28 for the month.

The median estimate of economists polled by Thomson Reuters was for a 0.5% increase in inventories.

Retail stocks are the last part of the inventory picture for the month, with factory and wholesale inventories reported earlier. Retailers reported a 0.2% rise. Excluding autos, retail inventories were up also up 0.2%. Auto inventories themselves showed a 0.1% increase.

Wholesale inventories rose 0.6% and manufacturing rose 0.2%.

In the retail categories broken out by the Commerce Department in the June release, department stores had a 1.1% drop. General merchandise stores — the Wal-Mart and Target category — showed a 0.3% decline. Building materials stores had a 0.2% decline. The other categories showed increases, with clothing stores up 0.5%. Furniture and appliance stores and food stores both showed 0.3% inventory gains.

Year over year, total business inventories rose 11.1% and sales were up 12.4%.

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