U.S. Business Inventories Show Slight Uptick In April

(RTTNews) - Business inventories in the U.S. saw a slight uptick in the month of April, the Commerce Department revealed in a report released on Tuesday.

The report said business inventories inched up by 0.1 percent in April after rising by a downwardly revised 0.3 percent in March.

Economists had expected inventories to edge up by 0.2 percent compared to the 0.4 percent increase originally reported for the previous month.

The modest increase in business inventories came as wholesale inventories climbed by 0.6 percent in April after rising by 0.2 percent in March.

On the other hand, the Commerce Department said manufacturing and retail inventories both dipped by 0.1 percent during the month.

The report also said business sales advanced by 0.9 percent in April following a 0.2 percent uptick in the previous month.

Retail sales surged up by 1.4 percent during the month, while wholesale sales jumped by 1.0 percent and manufacturing sales rose by 0.5 percent.

With sales rising faster than inventories, the total business inventories/sales ratio dipped to 1.40 in April from 1.41 in March. The ratio came in at 1.37 a year ago.

Compared to the same month a year ago, business inventories were up by 1.0 percent but business sales were down by 1.3 percent.