--US December business inventories +0.1%; sales +0.1%
--US December inventory/sales ratio unchanged at 1.36 vs November
--US December retailer inventories +0.3%; autos +0.1%
--US December retail durable stock/sales ratio unchanged at 2.01
--US December retail nondurable stock/sales ratio unchanged at 1.10

By Andrew Williams, BridgeNews
Washington--Feb. 14--U.S. business inventories posted their smallest increase in nearly two years, climbing just 0.1% in December. The uptick in inventories at factories, wholesalers and retailers was below the November gain of 0.3% and the consensus estimate for a 0.2% climb. Business sales also rose 0.1%, leaving the inventory-to-sales ratio at 1.36, unchanged from November.
* * *
Inventories at retailers were up 0.3% in December after climbing 0.5% in November, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. The rise in business sales reversed the 0.4% drop in November.
In a survey of 20 economists by BridgeNews, the spread of estimates for overall December business inventories ranged from unchanged to up 0.5%.
The retail inventory figure provides the final snapshot of U.S. inventory activity for December. As previously reported, factory inventories (Story .4733 ) and wholesale inventories were both unchanged (Story .4708 ).
RETAIL INVENTORY LEVELS
In the retail sector, automotive stocks inched up 0.1% after growing a revised 0.6% in November. However, they were up 13.2% from the prior year. Excluding autos, retail inventories were up 0.4% in December.

STOCK-TO-SALES RATIO
The inventories/sales ratio for retailers was unchanged from November's 1.47. Within retail, the durable goods ratio was flat at 2.01 and the nondurable goods ratio also was unchanged at 1.10.
HISTORICALS
The 0.1% rise in total business inventories was the smallest since January 1999, when they also inched up 0.1%, a Commerce official said. December inventories were up 6.1% from December 1999, while business sales were 2.8% above the year-earlier period. End
Copyright 2001 Bridge Information Systems Inc. All rights reserved.