Monday, March 10, 2008

Wholesale Inventories Decelerate, Inventories at New Record Low

- Wholesale Inventories for January rose .8% versus estimates of a .5% gain and a 1.1% increase in December.

BOTTOM LINE: Inventories at US wholesalers in January rose less than a third as much as sales, Bloomberg reported. Sales rose 2.7%, the most since March 2004. The increase in sales brought the inventories down to 1.07 months worth, the lowest on record. Wholesalers make up about 25% of all business inventories. Inventories at auto wholesalers declined .7%, the most since October. Inventories of non-durable goods, such as oil and farm products, jumped 1.2%. Record low inventories are a big positive during this period of economic weakness. I expect wholesale inventories to rise again in February on inventory rebuilding.

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