Washington, DC, September 7, 2006--Inventories of wholesalers rose 0.8% in July, beating economists' expectations, while sales at the wholesale level rose 0.4%, the lowest level since February.
Economists were expecting wholesale inventories to increase by 0.6%.
Inventories rose by 0.8% in June, the same as originally estimated. Over the past year, wholesale inventories are up 8.8%, while sales have gained 12.6%.
The wholesale inventory report rarely affects financial markets because the data are old. The report is mostly of interest to economists tweaking their estimates for gross domestic product.
The overall number was led by a 0.9% gain in inventories of durable goods. Wholesale inventories of metals and electrical goods, in particular, each made strong gains of 2.7%.
Inventories of computer equipment, meanwhile, fell 2.3%, and inventories of professional equipment dropped 0.8%.
Sales of nondurable goods like farm products and petroleum led the wholesale sales number. Sales of farm products rose 5.6% in July. Petroleum sales rose 2.4%.
Alcohol sales, meanwhile, fell by 2.3%, and sales of paper, drugs and groceries all fell marginally.
The inventory-to-sales ratio remained at 1.15 for the third consecutive month.
