Wholesale Trade Much Better Than GDP Report Signaled
ThinkstockA reading on wholesale trade was released on Friday morning by the U.S. Commerce Department. This is for the month of March, a period that would have been weather-impacted and would have been under the same period as the dismal…
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A reading on wholesale trade was released on Friday morning by the U.S. Commerce Department. This is for the month of March, a period that would have been weather-impacted and would have been under the same period as the dismal 0.1% gross domestic product (GDP) growth recently reported.
While this number is rarely a market moving release, wholesale trade rose by 1.1% in March. That is more than twice the Bloomberg consensus estimate of only a gain of 0.5%. The range from economists was represented as 0.2% to 1.0% as well. In short, this was better than all estimates. Dow Jones also had a 0.5% consensus reading.
Another boost was the February reading of 0.5% growth in wholesale trade was revised up to a gain of 0.7%.
March’s inventory-to-sales ratio was down to 1.18 from 1.19 a year earlier and from 1.19 in February.
Wholesale trade is a measurement of the total dollar value of sales made and inventories held by wholesalers. It is also a key component of business inventories and sales.
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Jon Ogg has been a financial news analyst since 1997. Mr. Ogg set up one of the first audio squawk box services for traders called TTN, which he sold in 2003. He has previously worked as a licensed broker to some of the top U.S. and E.U. financial institutions, managed capital, and has raised private capital at the seed and venture stage. He has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as New York and Chicago, and he now lives in Houston, Texas. Jon received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance at University of Houston in 1992. www.247wallst.com.
