WASHINGTON — May wholesale inventories increased by 0.6%, revised upward from the 0.5% gain reported in the advance estimate, while wholesale sales increased 2.5% in the month, data released by the U.S. Commerce Department on Wednesday showed.
Given that wholesale inventories rose 0.6% and factory inventories were already reported up 0.2%, and barring no revision to the 0.4% rise in retail inventories, an MNI calculation is expecting an increase of 0.4% for business inventories, which will be released on July 16.
With the addition of the 2.5% gain in wholesale sales to the 0.8% increase for retail trade sales from last month's advanced sales release and the 0.6% gain for factory shipments already reported, an MNI calculation predicts that business sales will see a 1.3% rise, barring no large revision to retail trade sales data.
Since wholesale inventories posted a much more modest gain than did sales, the inventory/sales ratio fell to 1.24. Inventories were up 5.9% year/year, while sales have risen 11.8% from May 2017. The ratio is down from the 1.31 ratio seen one year ago due to sales growth outpacing inventories over the past year.
When excluding the 1.2% decline in auto inventories, inventories would have been up 0.8%, according to an MNI calculation. Excluding a 2.9% increase in auto sales, sales would have been up 2.5%, also according to an MNI calculation.
The value of durable inventories rose by 0.5% in the month, led by gains in every category except autos. Nondurables inventories rose 0.7% in May on drugs and petroleum.
Durables goods sales were up 1.9% in the month, with the categories generally higher. Nondurable goods sales rose by 3.1% in May on an 8.3% rise in petroleum.
