The month of March brought a relatively weak wholesale trade report on the inventories, but it was better on the sales front. As a reminder, these numbers come with close to a 45-day look back, and they may influence changes in first quarter reports rather than in live reports.
Wholesale inventories rose by 0.1%, shy of the 0.3% consensus projected by Bloomberg. The month of February was also revised lower, further into the red, to −0.6% from −0.5%.
March’s reading showed that sales rose by 0.7% on the wholesale level to some $430.7 billion. The stock-to-sales ratio was unchanged from the prior month at 1.36, while the March 2015 ratio was 1.32.
March sales of durable goods were down by 0.2% from February and were down 0.4% from March 2015. Sales of nondurable goods were up 1.6% from February but were down 3.5% from last March.
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Sales of petroleum and petroleum products were up 13.5% from February and sales of farm product raw materials were up 2.7%.
Inventories in the autos sector were up by 1.0%, while sales fell by some 0.7%. The stock-to-sales ratio in autos rose up to 1.83 in March, versus 1.80 in February. Stronger car sales in April may negate the apparent negativity.
March inventories of durable goods were down by 0.1%, but they were down by a wider 2.2% from a year earlier. Inventories of nondurable goods were up 0.5% from February and were up 4.6% from a year earlier.
Apparel inventories rose as sales were down by some 6.2%. Metals inventories fell by 2.0%.
Tuesday’s report from the U.S. Department of Commerce is rarely a market-moving report. Still, it can create adjustments inside of gross domestic product reports for the first quarter.
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