WASHINGTON – The value of wholesale inventories rose 0.4% in February, in line with the Commerce Department's advance estimate, while wholesale sales gained 0.6%, a Friday report showed.
Looking ahead to next Friday's retail sales report, business inventories is tracking at a 0.3% increase for February if the 0.4% gain in retail inventories from Commerce's advance estimate holds, an MNI calculation shows. Factory inventories rose 0.2% in February.
The 0.6% rise in wholesale sales reported Friday comes on top of a 0.6% gain in retail trade sales and a 0.3% gain in factory shipments, adding up to a 0.5% increase for business sales barring a large revision to retail trade sales.
Excluding the auto category, wholesale inventories would have been up 0.4% in February after a 0.3% increase in the previous month, an MNI calculation showed. Sales would have been up 1.1% in February if auto sales were excluded. They were flat in January.
As a result of the movements in inventories and sales, the overall inventory-to-sales ratio stayed at 1.28, down from 1.36 in February 2016 and the lowest level since December 2014.
The value of durable inventories rose 0.2% in the month, as auto inventories gained 0.4%. The remaining durables components were mostly higher but a 1.3% decline in machinery was a drag.
Nondurables inventories rose 0.7% on a 2.8% increase in petroleum inventories. The remaining categories were mixed.
Durables goods sales rose by 0.4% as auto sales dropped 5.0%. All but one of the remaining components saw gains.
The inventory/sales ratio for durable goods stayed steady in February at 1.62, still the lowest since August 2014.
Nondurable goods sales rose 0.7% after declining 0.1% in January. Petroleum sales gained 0.6% after stayed flat in January. The other component movements were generally higher with the exception of apparel sales, which declined 2.3%
