US wholesale inventories and sales increase in September

(Sharecast News) - US wholesale sales and inventories both increased in September, according to the Census Bureau, with sales growth comfortably outpacing stock building. Wholesale inventories increased 0.7% from August to $1.01trn, following an upwardly revised 0.7% gain in the prior month. Inventories were 7.6% higher than a year earlier.

Sales at merchant wholesalers rose 2.8% month-on-month to $840.1bn, accelerating from August's upwardly revised reading. On an annualised basis, wholesale sales were up 19.8%.

The inventories-to-sales ratio stood at 1.21 in September, down from 1.34 at the same time a year earlier, indicating that sales continued to grow at a faster pace than inventory levels.

August's sales increase was revised up from an initially reported 1.8% to 2%, while September inventory growth was revised higher to 0.7% from a preliminary estimate of 0.6%.



Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com