WASHINGTON — The value of business inventories rose 0.4%, as retail inventories surged 0.8% to add to an already announced inventory gain at the wholesale level and a flat reading at the factory level, data released Tuesday morning by the Commerce Department showed.
The retail inventory increase reflected a large rise in motor vehicle and parts inventories and widespread gains in the other retail components.
Analysts in an MNI survey had expected total business inventories to rise 0.3% in November. Factory inventories were already reported as flat in the month, while wholesale inventories rose 0.5%.
Overall business inventories would still have been up 0.3% in November if the jump in retail motor vehicle inventories was excluded, an MNI calculation showed.
Retail motor vehicle and parts inventories were up 1.3% despite a 1.9% sales increase that month. The remaining retail inventories categories combined for a 0.6% increase in November. All of the major retail categories posted increases in the November, though department stores inventories, a subcategory of general merchandise stores, fell 0.4% in the month.
In addition, an MNI calculation of retail inventories not included in the published categories shows a 0.7% gain in November after a 0.3% rise in the previous month.
Business sales were up 0.8% in November following a 0.5% increase in the previous month. Retail sales excluding food services rose 0.3% in November, as announced earlier Tuesday. Wholesale sales were already reported up 1.0% in the month, as were manufacturing shipments, which are equal to sales in this report.
Despite a larger percentage rise in business sales than business inventories in November, the inventory-to-sales ratio held steady at 1.29, the same as in the previous month and in November 2012.
Along with the stronger-than-expected November rise, business inventory growth was revised up in both September and October. The data suggest that inventory building started out on a strong footing in the fourth quarter and could be a net positive for GDP growth when the advance estimates is released later in the month.
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