U.S. Wholesale Inventories Increase In Line With Estimates In February

A report released by the Commerce Department on Wednesday showed wholesale inventories in the U.S. increased in line with economist estimates in the month of February.

The Commerce Department said wholesale inventories climbed by 0.5 percent in February after edging down by a revised 0.2 percent in January.

Economists had expected wholesale inventories to rise by 0.5 percent compared to the 0.3 percent dip originally reported for the previous month.

The rebound by wholesale inventories came as inventories of durable goods jumped by 1.0 percent, more than offsetting a 0.3 percent decrease by inventories of non-durable goods.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said wholesale sales surged by 2.3 percent in February after tumbling by 1.4 percent in January.

Sales of durable goods shot up by 1.6 percent during the month, while sales of non-durable goods spiked by 3.0 percent.

With sales jumping by much more than inventories, the inventories/sales ratio for merchant wholesalers fell to 1.34 in February from 1.36 in January.