Wholesale inventories increased 0.8% in November, the Commerce Department reported Friday.
Wholesale sales slid 0.3%.
Economists expected inventories would increase 0.3% and sales would be flat, according to the median estimate from Thomson Reuters. Inventories for October were up a revised 0.6%, from the initially reported 0.4% rise. October sales were flat, first reported as a 0.2% increase.
Inventories of durable goods were up 0.8% in November following a 0.1% increase in October. Sales of durable goods increased 0.1% in November following a 0.6% rise in October.
Inventories of nondurable goods were up 0.7% in November following a 1.5% rise in October. Sales of nondurable goods dropped 0.8% in November following a 0.6% slide in October.
The inventories-to-sales ratio grew to 1.21 in November from 1.20 in October. A year ago the inventories-to-sales ratio was 1.16%.
