WASHINGTON (MNI) - The value of wholesale inventories fell 0.5% in April, a -0.2% adjustment from the 0.3% decrease estimated in the advance estimate, while wholesale sales were -0.4%, data released Friday by the U.S. Commerce Department showed.
Looking ahead to Wednesday's report, the business inventories are tracking to be -0.2%, but flat for business sales. Factory inventories were +0.1% in April. With the addition of the drop to -0.5% in wholesale inventories reported Friday, the outlook for business inventories is for a 0.2% derease if the 0.3% drop in retail inventories in the advance estimate holds, an MNI calculation shows.
The wholesale sales reading of -0.4% reported Friday comes on top of a flat reading for factory shipments reported Monday and 0.4% for retail trade sales following annual revisions. The retail and wholesale sales would balance eachother out and add up to a flat business sales reading on Wednesday, barring a large revision to retail trade sales.
Despite the loss in wholesale inventories and the decline in wholesale sales, the inventory/sales ratio remained at 1.28 in April for the third consecutive month. The ratio was below the 1.35 mark in April 2016, signaling that sales have risen more than inventories since this time last year.
Excluding the auto category, wholesale inventories would have been -0.4% in April after a -0.1% reading in the previous month, an MNI calculation showed. Sales would have been down 0.6% in April if auto sales were excluded. This followed a -0.3% loss in March.
The value of durable inventories fell by 0.3% in the month, as auto inventories saw a steep drop to -1.4% after a 1.9% gain in March. The remaining durables components were all xxxer except for furniture, metals, and machinery.
Nondurables inventories were down 0.8% on a 5.0% decline in petroleum inventories. All were down with the exception of apparel and groceries.
Durables goods sales saw an increase to +0.3%, up from a -0.2% reading in March, with auto sales up to +1.3%. The remaining components were all up, with the exception of furniture, lumber, hardware, and machinery.
Nondurable goods sales fell further in April to -1.1% after a -0.2% March reading. Petroleum sales fell to -1.5% after a 0.7% decrease in March.
