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.
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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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