A report released by the Commerce Department on Tuesday unexpectedly showed a modest decrease in U.S. business inventories in the month of March.
The Commerce Department said business inventories edged down by 0.1 percent in March following a revised unchanged reading in February.
Economists had expected business inventories to come in unchanged compared to the 0.2 percent uptick originally reported for the previous month.
The unexpected dip came as manufacturing inventories slid by 0.8 percent, more than offsetting a 0.7 percent increase in retail inventories. Wholesale inventories were unchanged.
Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said business sales tumbled by 1.1 percent in March after falling by 0.3 percent in February.
Wholesale sales plunged by 2.1 percent, while retail sales declined by 0.8 percent and manufacturing sales slipped by 0.1 percent.
With sales falling by much more than inventories, the total business inventories/sales ratio crept up to 1.39 in March from 1.38 in February.
