WASHINGTON — The value of wholesale inventories rose 0.5% in November while sales jumped 1.0%, data released Friday morning by the U.S. Commerce Department showed.
Excluding the auto category, wholesale inventories would have been up 0.6% in November after a 1.2% surge in the previous month, an MNI calculation showed. Sales would have been still been up 1.0% in November if auto sales were excluded. This followed a 1.6% rise in October.
The overall inventory-to-sales ratio fell to 1.17 from 1.18 in October and from 1.20 in November 2012. The ratio was last this low in July 2013.
The value of durable inventories rose 0.5% in the month, as auto inventories were down 0.5%, but the remaining durables components were generally higher.
Nondurables inventories also rose 0.5% on gains in farm products, apparel, and drugs. Petroleum inventories fell 5.0% in the month, the largest monthly decline since a 9.8% drop in June 2012.
Durables goods sales fell by 0.4% despite a 0.7% rise in auto sales and a 0.5% rise in professional equipment sales. There were declines in a number of the remaining durables components, particularly the machinery and electrical equipment categories.
Nondurable goods sales jumped 2.1%, with petroleum sales up 5.7% to lead the increase. There were also gains in the farm products, apparel and drugs categories.
Factory inventories were reported as flat in November, so the outlook for business inventory growth appears to be slightly positive pending the retail inventories data when they are released.
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