U.S. Business Inventories Virtually Unchanged In August

The Commerce Department released a report on Wednesday showing little change in U.S. business inventories in the month of August.

The report said business inventories came in virtually unchanged in August after climbing by a revised 0.3 percent in July.

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

Business inventories came in unchanged as manufacturing inventories were flat and a 0.2 percent uptick in wholesale inventories was offset by a 0.1 percent dip in retail inventories.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said business sales rose by 0.2 percent in August, matching the revised increase in July.

Retail sales led the way higher, climbing by 0.6 percent, while wholesale sales were unchanged and manufacturing sales edged down by 0.1 percent.

Even with sales rising and inventories flat, the total business inventories/sales ratio came in unchanged from the previous month at 1.40.