WASHINGTON – March wholesale inventories rose by 0.3% in March, revised down from the 0.5% rise reported in the advance estimate, while wholesale sales also rose 0.3% in the month, data released by the U.S. Commerce Department on Wednesday showed.
Given that wholesale inventories rose 0.3%, and factory inventories reported a 0.3% gain last Thursday, and barring no revision to the 0.4% decline in retail inventories, an MNI calculation is expecting a an increase of 0.1% for business inventories, which will be released May 15.
With the addition of the 0.3% increase in wholesale sales to the 0.6% increase for retail trade sales from last month's advanced sales release and the 0.4% increase for factory shipments reported on May 3, an MNI calculation indicates that business sales will see a 0.4% rise, barring a large revision to retail trade sales data.
Since both March wholesale inventories and sales saw equal increases, the inventory/sales ratio remained at 1.26. Inventories year-over-year is up 5.5%, however sales have seen a larger rise of 7.3% from March 2017. The ratio is below the 1.28 ratio seen in March 2017, pointing to sales outpacing inventories in the past year.
When excluding the 0.2% drop in autos, inventories would have been up 0.4% in March following a 1.1% rise in February, an MNI calculation showed.
Wholesale sales would have been up 0.5% in March if the 1.6% decline in autos had been excluded. This follows a 1.1% increase seen in February when excluding auto sales. The year-over-year rate showed strength in the month, rising 7.3%.
The value of durable inventories rose by 0.8% in the month, however auto inventories declined by 0.2%. Excluding the decline in autos, most other durable components were up, with the only declines seen in professional equipment (-0.7%) and computer equipment (-1.5%).
Nondurables inventories declined by 0.4% in March. The largest decline was seen in the drugs component, falling 2.2% in the month. Most other categories also saw declines, with the exception of paper (+1.4%), farm products (+3.8%), and petroleum was flat in the month.
Durables goods sales were down 0.3% in the month, with auto sales down 1.6%. The remaining categories were particularly weak this month, with the only increases seen in electrical (+2.1%) and machinery (+0.9%). These increases were unable to offset the declines in all other categories.
Nondurable goods sales rose by 1.0% in March. This rise follows February's 0.4% gain. Almost all of the components were up in the month, with the only exception being groceries (-1.0%) and chemicals (-0.8%).
