WASHINGTON — The value of wholesale inventories rose 0.8% in November, a small upward revision from the 0.7% increase in the advance estimate, while wholesale sales saw a 1.5% increase, data released Wednesday by the U.S. Commerce Department showed.
With the 0.8% rise in wholesale inventories, combined with the 0.4% gain in factory inventories reported last Friday, and barring no revision to the 0.1% retail inventories, an MNI calculation expects a 0.4% increase for business inventories, to be released January 12.
With the addition of the 1.5% gain in wholesale sales to the 0.8% increase for retail trade sales from last month's advanced sales release and the 1.2% increase for factory shipments reported on January 5, an MNI calculation indicates there will be a 1.2% increase for business sales barring a large revision to retail trade sales.
With the increase in November wholesale inventories, but the larger increase in wholesale sales, the inventory/sales ratio fell to 1.24 from 1.25 in October, the lowest since November 2014 (1.23). Inventories year-over-year is up 4.0%, but sales have boomed in the past year, with a rise of 9.8% from November 2016. The ratio was below the 1.31 mark in November 2016, pointing to sales rising quicker than inventories in the past year.
Excluding the auto category, wholesale inventories would have been up 0.8% in November after a 0.3% decline in October, an MNI calculation showed. Wholesale sales excluding autos would have been up 1.5% in November, following a 0.6% increase in October, with the year-over-year rate of 9.2%.
The value of durable inventories rose by 0.5% in the month, with auto inventories rising 0.7%. The remaining durables components were mixed, with gains in lumber, metals, electrical, and machinery. The rest of the categories saw smaller declines, with miscellaneous durables posting the only relatively large 0.9% decline.
Nondurables inventories were up 1.3% in November. The biggest increases were seen in drugs (+1.9%), farm products (+4.3%), and petroleum (+4.9%). The remaining categories were mixed, with paper and miscellaneous nondurables also seeing gains and the rest seeing losses. Chemicals were flat in the month.
Durables goods sales were up 1.6% in the month, with auto sales up 1.2%. The remaining components saw gains with the exception of metals, and miscellaneous durables.
Nondurable goods sales were up 1.4% in November after a 0.2% gain in October. Petroleum sales saw a strong 6.4% gain, this follows a 5.6% decrease in October, up 30.3% year-over-year.
