Dec. Business Inventories Up 0.1%; Sales Down 0.6%

WASHINGTON – The value of business inventories rose 0.1% in December, compared with expectations for a 0.2% gain, as retail inventories rose 0.4%, data released Friday morning by the Commerce Department showed.

Wholesale inventories were already reported down 0.1%, while factory inventories rose 0.2%.

Overall business inventories would have still been up 0.1% in December if a 0.9% gain in retail motor vehicle inventories was excluded, an MNI calculation showed.

After excluding the motor vehicle inventory jump, the remaining retail categories combined for a 0.2% increase. The movement in the other individual categories was mixed, but a solid 0.9% rise in the large clothing stores component was notable.

In addition, the unpublished retail categories were up 0.8% in December after a 0.4% rise in November, according to an MNI calculation.

Business sales fell 0.6% in December. Retail sales excluding food services were flat, as announced earlier Friday, while wholesale sales fell 0.3% and manufacturing shipments, which are equal to sales in this report, fell 1.4%.

As a result of the small rise in business inventories and the large drop in business sales, the inventory-to-sales ratio rose to 1.39 in December from 1.38 in November. The ratio was 1.33 in December 2014.

Total unadjusted business inventories were up 1.7% in December compared with December 2014. Cumulative business sales fell 2.4% in 2015 after a 3.5% rise in 2014. This was the first annual sales drop since a 14.9% decline in 2009.

Market News International is a real-time global news service for fixed-income and foreign exchange market professionals. See www.marketnews.com.

Market News International is a real-time global news service for fixed-income and foreign exchange market professionals. See www.marketnews.com.
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