Sales And Inventories Both Climb In July

The Census Bureau reports the manufacturing and trade inventories and sales in July:

Sales. The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that the combined value of distributive trade sales and manufacturers’ shipments for July, adjusted for seasonal and trading-day differences but not for price changes, was estimated at $1,240.6 billion, up 0.9 percent (±0.1%) from June 2012 and up 2.8 percent (±0.3%) from July 2011.

Inventories. Manufacturers’ and trade inventories, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of $1,592.0 billion, up 0.8 percent (±0.1%) from June 2012 and up 5.4 percent (±0.3%) from July 2011.

Inventories/Sales Ratio. The total business inventories/sales ratio based on seasonally adjusted data at the end of July was 1.28. The July 2011 ratio was 1.25.

The business inventories-to-sales ratio of 1.28 is the highest reading since October of 2010.