The Census Bureau Monthly Wholesale Report for February shows inventories rose 1.0 percent nearly matching the Econoday consensus. It wasn’t a difficult guess in light of the advance (preliminary) Census Bureau estimates.
- Sales: February 2018 sales of merchant wholesalers, except manufacturers’ sales branches and offices, after adjustment for seasonal variations and trading-day differences but not for price changes, were $495.9 billion, up 1.0 percent from the revised January level and were up 6.8 percent from the February 2017 level. The December 2017 to January 2018 percent change was revised from the preliminary estimate of down 1.1 percent to down 1.5 percent.
- Inventories: Total inventories of merchant wholesalers, except manufacturers’ sales branches and offices, after adjustment for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were $625.6 billion at the end of February, up 1.0 percent from the revised January level. Total inventories were up 5.5 percent from the revised February 2017 level. The January 2018 to February 2018 percent change was revised from the advance estimate of up 1.1 percent to up 1.0 percent.
- Inventories to Sales Ratio: The February inventories/sales ratio for merchant wholesalers, except manufacturers’ sale offices, based on seasonally adjusted data, was 1.26. The February 2017 ratio was 1.28.
Monthly Inventory/Sales Ratio
Wholesale Sales, Inventories, Ratio
In light of retail sales falling three consecutive months, this inventory buildup appears questionable.
Autos? Why? Furniture? Why?
For discussion of retail sales, please see Confidence? Retail Sales Down Third Month.
Of course it could be that Globally Bad Weather we have been talking about.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
So, after thousands of stores closed the past year, retail sales are actually up from 2017? Interesting, which means sales per store must have skyrocketed, yet that’s not what my data shows. So…..
I saw this post and was wondering what kind of goods are sold via wholesalers versus via manufacturer directly to retailer and then to the end user. Certainly not automobiles, these are sold direct from manufacturer to retailers and large fleet customers. How much stuff does Costco, Amazon, Walmart, Kroger, Target, etc. buy through a wholesaler versus direct from the manufacturer? So, I took a quick look at the data and found to my surprise that the reported sales by wholesalers is consistently larger than the reported retail sales. So I am having a hard time understanding what this wholesaler data includes. Do any readers out there have a clue?
Port traffic for last quarter is at it’s highest ever for the Port of Long beach. Now we have record traffic in Intermodal rail and Port. Economy is on fire and people bitch. Dow theory is in full swing. Look for a shakeout then higher in Equities.
March Auto sales deceptive as there was an additional selling weekend compared to last year. However, stock market gyrations have hammered me luxury car sales alreadt
Year-to-date new car registrations in the US are running at the 1989 level.
so what about the credit squeeze, CC rates, adjustable mortgages.
Maybe the stores are stocking up on chinese made stuff before the tariffs hit.