The U.S. Department of Commerce released business inventories data for the month of August on Wednesday morning. A growth in inventories can be positive for GDP calculations, but too much growth can lead to negative production and employment.
The reading for business inventories came in at 0.2%, against a Bloomberg consensus estimate of 0.4%. The previous level was 0.4%. At the same time there was a 0.4% decline in business sales.
Despite the drop in business sales and increase in inventories, the inventory-to-sales ratio remained unchanged from the previous level at 1.29. The reading for the August inventory-to-sales ratio from the previous year was 1.28.
Retail inventories thinned in August relative to the sales, and on a total dollar basis the stock-to-sales ratio dropped to 1.41 from 1.43.
The stock-to-sales ratio for autos showed a sharp decline to 2.07 from 2.13. However, this may reverse in the next report, considering the weakness in the motor vehicle component in September retail sales.
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