WASHINGTON — Wholesale sales were unchanged in July as inventories rose 0.8% on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Commerce Department reported Friday. That followed unrevised 0.6% increases for both inventories and sales in June.
Sales of durable goods were up 1.4% but sales of non-durables fell 1.1%. That was the biggest decline in non-durables sales since March 2009.
Inventories of durable goods rose 1.0% and non-durables inventories rose 0.5%.
The July inventories to sales ratio was 1.17, up from an unrevised 1.16 in June.
The median estimate from the Thomson Reuters poll of economists was a 0.8% rise both in inventories and in sales.
In non-durables, sales of raw farm products fell 6.7% and farm inventories fell 3.6%. Sales of petroleum were down 1.5% although inventories rose 2.1%.
Inventories of apparel were up 2.9%. Inventories of chemicals rose 2.3%.
In durables, auto sales rose 5.3% while inventories were up 0.6%. Computer equipment sales rose 2.5% with inventories increasing 3.7%.
