WASHINGTON – June wholesale inventories increased by 0.1%, revised upward from the flat reading reported in the advance estimate, while wholesale sales decreased 0.1% in the month, data released by the U.S. Commerce Department on Thursday showed.
Given that wholesale inventories rose 0.1% and factory inventories were already reported up 0.1%, and barring no revision to the flat reading in retail inventories, an MNI calculation is expecting an increase of 0.1% for business inventories, which will be released on August 15.
With the addition of the -0.1% fall in wholesale sales to the 0.3% increase for retail trade sales from last month's advanced sales release and the 1.0% gain for factory shipments already reported, an MNI calculation predicts that business sales will see a 0.4% rise, barring no large revision to retail trade sales data.
Although wholesale inventories rose while sales declined, the inventory/sales ratio remained unchanged. Inventories were up 5.1% year/year, while sales have risen 10.2% from June 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 0.2%, according to an MNI calculation. Excluding a 0.4% increase in auto sales, sales would have been down 0.1%, also according to an MNI calculation.
The value of durable inventories rose by 0.8% in the month, led by gains in metals, lumber and equipment. Nondurables inventories fell 1.0% in June on all categories except chemicals, groceries and paper.
Durables goods sales were up 0.2% in the month, despite generally lower categories. Nondurable goods sales fell by 0.3% in June on a 6.6% decline in miscellaneous nondurables.
