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2008 Economic Calendar |
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Resource Center » U.S. & Intl Recaps | Release Dates | Why Investors Care | Today's Calendar
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Business inventories are the dollar amount of inventories held by manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers. The level of inventories in relation to sales is an important indicator of the near-term direction of production activity. Why Investors Care
| Released on 5/11/06 For Mar 2006 | ||||||||||||
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Highlights
Business inventories rose a higher-than-expected 0.7 percent in March, the same rate as business sales keeping the stocks-to-sales ratio at 1.26. Retailer inventories were the new data in the report, showing a strong 1.0 percent rise following an unchanged reading in February. Factory inventories rose 0.7 percent with wholesaler inventories up 0.2 percent. Looking year-on-year, business inventories are up 4.2 percent, below a 7.7 percent rise for sales. Though this morning's retail trade report was on the soft side, inventory building is likely to continue as businesses keep up with demand.
Business inventories were unchanged in February with declines in manufacturing and retail trade inventories. Thus far, manufacturers' inventories rose 0.7 percent in March. Wholesale trade inventories and retail trade inventories are still unavailable.
Business inventories Consensus Forecast for Mar 06: 0.5 percent
Range: 0.2 to 0.6 percent
![[Chart]](chart.gif)
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Inventories tend to rise when economic conditions are strong; since sales are rising at the same time, the inventory-to-sales ratio may remain stable, or rise at a very slow pace. Inventories tend to drop when economic conditions are weak; since sales are falling at the same time, the inventory-to-sales ratio may remain relatively stable. The I-S ratio then begins to rise as sales fall more quickly than inventory growth. |
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