Wholesale inventories increased 0.3% in February, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. Wholesale sales dropped 0.2%.
Economists expected inventories would be up 0.2% and sales would rise 0.1%, according to the median estimate from Thomson Reuters.
Inventories for January were a revised to show a 0.4% gain, first reported as a 0.3% increase. January sales were off 3.6%, first reported as a 3.1% decrease.
Inventories of durable goods were up 0.3% in February following a 0.7% increase in January. Sales of durable goods decreased 2.4% in February following a 2.1% drop in January.
Inventories of nondurable goods grew 0.2% in February following a flat level in January. Sales of nondurable goods climbed 1.9% in February following a 5.0% decline in January.
The inventories-to-sales ratio held at 1.29 in February, unchanged from 1.29 in January. A year ago the inventories-to-sales ratio was 1.20%.
