A report released by the Commerce Department on Thursday showed U.S. wholesale inventories fell by more than expected in the month of October.
The Commerce Department said wholesale inventories declined by 0.4 percent in October after coming in unchanged in September. Economists had expected wholesale inventories to dip by 0.2 percent.
The bigger than expected decrease came as inventories of non-durable goods slumped by 1.0 percent, more than offsetting a 0.1 percent uptick in inventories of durable goods.
The report also showed a sharp pullback in wholesale sales, which tumbled by 1.3 percent in October after surging by 2.0 percent in September.
Sales of non-durable goods plunged by 2.0 percent during the month, while sales of durable goods fell by 0.5 percent.
With sales falling by much more than inventories, the inventories/sales ratio for merchant wholesalers crept up to 1.34 in October from 1.33 in September.
