Business inventories remained quite subdued in the month of April. While this report might only confirm prior news rather than sway the markets much, it shows a continued muted inventory climate in which businesses just do not seem eager to restock.
April’s inventory levels rose by 0.1%, less than the 0.2% gain expected by both Bloomberg and Dow Jones.
March’s inventory readings were also revised lower. That reading sank to 0.3% rather than the 0.4% that was initially reported.
The U.S. Census Bureau, via the U.S. Department of Commerce, put the combined value of distributive trade sales and manufacturer shipments at an estimate gain of 0.9% to $1.2902 trillion on a seasonally adjusted basis. However, on a year-over-year basis, this reading was down by 1.3% from April of 2015.
A dollar reading on inventories, also seasonally adjusted, was estimated at an end-of-month level of $1.8071 trillion. That 0.1% gain over the prior month looked a tad better than a year-on-year reading, whereby the Commerce Department showed that gain was 1.0% from April of 2015.
The critical seasonally adjusted inventories-to-sales ratio was 1.40 in April, and the April 2015 ratio was 1.37.
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