Wholesale Inventories Fall As Expected

Wholesale inventories fell an as-expected 0.1 percent in December with November revised 1 tenth lower to minus 0.4 percent. Wholesalers have been liquidating inventories as sales have been falling, down 0.3 percent in the latest month following a 1.3 percent sales decline in November. And they've been successful, keeping down the stock-to-sales ratio at 1.32 the last two reports which is still however up noticeably from 1.24 in December 2015. The factory sector hasn't been as successful keeping down inventories, showing a 0.2 percent rise in December. This sets the stage for December retail inventories which will be released with the business inventories report on Friday following the retail sales report.

Recent History Of This Indicator:
Wholesale inventories, due to soft demand, have been on the decline. Inventories fell a sizable 0.3 percent in the last report for November but sales fell even more sharply, down 1.0 percent to drive the stock-to-sales ratio to 1.32 from 1.31. Further destocking is expected for December with the Econoday consensus at minus 0.1 percent.