A report released by the Commerce Department on Friday showed a modest decrease by U.S. wholesale inventories in the month of July.
The Commerce Department said wholesale inventories dipped by 0.2 percent in July after falling by a revised 0.7 percent in June.
Economists had expected wholesale inventories to edge down by 0.1 percent compared to the 0.5 percent decrease originally reported for the previous month.
The modest decline in wholesale inventories came as a 0.3 percent drop by inventories of durable goods more than offset a 0.1 percent uptick in inventories of non-durable goods.
Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said wholesale sales advanced by 0.8 percent in July after sliding by 0.8 percent in June.
The report said sales of non-durable goods jumped by 1.3 percent during the month, while sales of durable goods rose by 0.3 percent.
With inventories falling and sales climbing, the inventories/sales ratio for merchant wholesalers dropped to 1.39 in July from 1.41 in June.
