Advance Wholesale Inventories +0.5%, Retail -0.4%

Advance inventories nearly netted out flat in March with wholesale inventories rising and retail declining.

Advance Wholesale Inventories

Wholesale inventories for March, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of $628.8 billion, up 0.5 percent (±0.2 percent) from February 2018, and were up 5.8 percent (±0.9 percent) from March 2017. The January 2018 to February 2018 percentage change was unrevised from up 1.0 percent (±0.2 percent).

Advance Retail Inventories

Retail inventories for March, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of $625.6 billion, down 0.4 percent (±0.2 percent) from February 2018, and were up 1.6 percent (±0.5 percent) from March 2017. The January 2018 to February 2018 percentage change was unrevised at up 0.4 percent (±0.2 percent).

There is not much of interest in this report. Data for March is nearly in. The advance GDP estimate for the first quarter will be out tomorrow.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock