WASHINGTON (AFX) - Wholesale inventories were unchanged in December, the Commerce Department said.
The weakness in inventories was unexpected. The consensus forecast of Wall Street economists was for a 0.4 pct rise in inventories in December.
In November, wholesale inventories rose 0.4 pct, unrevised from the original estimate last month.
Year-on-year, wholesale inventories were up 6.5 pct. Sales at the wholesale level rose 0.7 pct in December, after remaining unchanged in the previous month. This is the biggest increase in sales since June.
The inventory-to-sales ratio, an indicator of how well stocks are meeting demand, was 1.30 in December, down from 1.31 in November. This is the lowest inventory-to-sales ratio since September.
Durable good inventories, such as automobiles and furniture, fell 0.2 pct, after an 0.2 pct gain in November. The drop was led by metal and mineral inventories. Automobile inventories rose 1.2 pct following a rise of 0.6 pct in November.
Inventories of nondurable goods, disposable products that last less than three years, rose 0.5 pct in December after a 0.7 pct rise in the previous month. The gain was led by drug inventories.
Petroleum stocks rose 0.9 pct in December after a 7.2 pct rise in the previous month.