Wholesale Trade Posts Larger Than Expected Gain

The total sales for merchant wholesalers were recorded at $453.9 billion and inventories read at $538 billion. Sales for durable goods were up 0.1% from the previous month, and up 7% from August of 2013. Inventories for durable goods were up 0.8% from the previous month and 8.5% on the year. Sales of metals and minerals, except petroleum, were up 1.6% from the previous month.

Sales of nondurable goods were down 1.3% from July, but they were up 4.7% from August 2013. Inventories for nondurable goods were up 0.5% from the previous month and 6.9% on the year. Petroleum and petroleum products were down 4.2%, and farm product raw materials were down 3.8% from the previous month. Inventories of drugs and druggists’ sundries were up 1.6% from July.

Based on seasonally adjusted data for the month of August, the inventories to sales ratio for merchant wholesalers was 1.19 compared to the previous year of 1.16.

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