In a report from the Commerce Department released on Tuesday, U.S. business inventories showed a slight uptick in October. Specifically, inventories nudged up by 0.1 percent for the month, while updated figures indicated that inventories remained stable in September.
This subtle increase was anticipated by economists, who projected a similar 0.1 percent rise, aligning with the originally reported data for September. The increment in business inventories was attributed to a 0.2 percent growth in both retail and wholesale inventories, effectively counteracting a minor 0.1 percent decline in manufacturing inventories.
In addition to inventory data, the Commerce Department noted that business sales saw no change in October after experiencing a 0.3 percent rise in September. Breaking it down, retail sales increased by 0.4 percent, manufacturing sales decreased by 0.2 percent, and wholesale sales fell marginally by 0.1 percent.
Furthermore, the business inventories-to-sales ratio remained steady at 1.37 in October, showing no variation from September's figure.
