After reporting a notable increase in U.S. wholesale inventories in the previous month, the Commerce Department released a report on Tuesday showing that inventories edged only slightly higher in the month of December.
The report said wholesale inventories inched up by 0.1 percent in December after climbing by 0.8 percent in November. Economists had expected inventories to edge up by 0.2 percent.
The modest uptick in inventories came as a 0.2 percent increase in inventories of durable goods was partly offset by a 0.1 percent drop in inventories of non-durable goods.
While inventories of computers, peripheral equipment, and software surged up by 2.6 percent, inventories of petroleum and petroleum products tumbled by 6.2 percent.
Meanwhile, the Commerce Department also said wholesale sales fell by 0.4 percent in December, matching the drop reported for the previous month.
The drop in wholesale sales reflected a 1.7 percent decrease in sales of non-durable goods, which came as sales of petroleum and petroleum products plummeted by 13.7 percent.
On the other hand, the report said sales of durable goods rose by 1.1 percent amid a 5.4 percent jump in sales of lumber and other construction materials.
With inventories rising and sales falling, the inventories/sales ratio for merchant wholesalers ticked up to 1.22 in December from 1.21 in November. The ratio came in at 1.16 in the same month a year ago.
The report also said wholesale inventories jumped 6.7 year-over-year in December, while wholesale sales rose at an annual rate of 1.4 percent.
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