WASHINGTON — Wholesale inventories rose 1.0% in February, revised down slightly from the 1.1% increase in the advance estimate, while wholesale sales rose 1.0% in the month, data released Tuesday by the U.S. Commerce Department showed.
With wholesale inventories rising 1.0%, and factory inventories reporting a 0.3% gain last Wednesday, and barring no revision to the 0.4% retail inventories, an MNI calculation is expecting a 0.6% gain for business inventories, to be released April 16.
With the addition of the 1.0% increase in wholesale sales to the 0.1% decrease for retail trade sales from last month's advanced sales release and the 0.2% increase for factory shipments reported on April 4, an MNI calculation indicates there will be a 0.4% increase for business sales, barring a large revision to retail trade sales.
Since both February wholesale inventories and sales saw equal increases, the inventory/sales ratio remained at 1.26. Inventories year-over-year is up 5.5%, but sales increased more in the past year, seeing a rise of 6.8% from February 2017. The ratio is below the 1.28 mark in February 2017, pointing to a faster sales pace than inventories in the past year.
Excluding the 0.1% decline in the auto category, wholesale inventories would have been up 1.1% again in February following a 1.1% increase in January, an MNI calculation showed.
Wholesale sales excluding the 1.4% rise in autos would have remained at 1.0% in February, following a 1.6% decline in January, with the year-over-year rate still showing strength with a 6.4% increase.
The value of durable inventories rose by 1.1% in the month, with auto inventories falling by 0.1%. Excluding the auto decline, all other durable components saw increases, with machinery (+1.5%) and computer equipment (+2.8%) seeing the largest gains.
Nondurables inventories were up 0.8% in February. Petroleum saw the largest decline with a 3.7% drop, while the only other category to register a decline was alcohol (-0.8%). These declines were not enough to offset the gains in all other categories, with the biggest increases seen in farm products (+5.7%), groceries (+1.0%), and the miscellaneous nondurable category (+1.7%).
Durables goods sales were up 1.7% in the month, with auto sales up 1.4%. The remaining categories were up with the exception of professional equipment seeing a 0.4% decline. Metals (+4.4%), machinery (+3.9%), and furniture (+4.5%) all saw considerable increases.
February nondurable goods sales were up 0.4% following January's 1.7% decline. Most components were up, with drugs and petroleum posting the only declines in the month.
