Wholesale inventories increased 0.4% in August, the Commerce Department reported Friday.
Wholesale sales increased 1.0%.
Economists expected inventories would increase 0.6% and sales would gain 0.2%, according to the median estimate from Thomson Reuters.
Inventories for July were revised higher to a 0.8% rise from the flat reading originally reported last month. July sales were up a revised 0.3%, originally reported as a 1.4% increase.
Inventories of durable goods increased 1.1% in August following a 1.1% uptick in July. Sales of durable goods rose 2.3% in the month after a 2.1% rise in July.
The inventories-to-sales ratio stayed put at 1.16 in August, unchanged from July.
