WASHINGTON — The value of business inventories in January rose 0.8%, above the 0.4% gain expected by MNI and the 0.5% gain expected by the Bloomberg consensus.
Retail inventories rose 0.8%, while the wholesale inventories report showed a 1.2% increase in the month and factory inventories were already reported to be up 0.5%. According to an MNI calculation, if a 1.2% increase in motor vehicle inventories had been excluded, total business inventories would have been up 0.8% in January.
After excluding the increase in retail motor vehicle inventories, the remaining retail categories were up 0.6%. All of the other retail inventory components were generally up in January. At the same time, the relatively large unpublished retail category was up 0.3% following a 1.4% increase in December, according to an MNI calculation.
January business sales posted a 0.3% increase in the month, with retail sales excluding food services rising 0.8%. There was a previously announced 0.4% decline for factory shipments, which are equal to sales in this report, and wholesale sales posted a 0.5% rise.
