Wholesale Trade Posts Another Gain in April

The Census Bureau issued the sales data showing a gain of 0.5% to $416.6 billion. The durable goods for the month were up 1.6% from the prior month and up 4.2% from a year earlier. Nondurable goods sales were down by 0.5% from March and down 2.2% from a year earlier. Petroleum and petroleum products were down 2.7% from the prior month.

Wholesale trade measures the dollar value of sales made and inventories held by merchant wholesalers. It is a component of all business sales and inventories, and the Census showed that the inventories/sales ratio for merchant wholesalers was 1.21, versus 1.17 a year earlier and 1.21 in March.