Wholesale Inventories increased by 0.3% in October to $379.6 billion, better than the expected 0.5% decrease following a decrease of 0.9% in September and are down by 13.5% from a year ago. Wholesale Sales had increased by 1.2% in October to $362.2 billion and down 9.6% over the year. Sales of durable goods were up by 0.8% and sales of nondurable goods were up 1.6% over the month. The Inventory/Sales ratio was at 1.16, lower from the 1.22 ratio in October of 2008.
Crude inventories are expected today at 10:30 AM EST. For the week ending November 27, U.S. commercial crude oil inventories had increased by 2.1 million barrels from the previous week to 339.9 million barrels and were above the upper limit of the average range for that time of year. U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 13.8 million barrels per day during this period, 127 thousand barrels per day below the previous week’s average. U.S. crude oil imports were averaging 8.4 million barrels per day, down 549 thousand barrels per day from the previous week
Upcoming Releases
Initial Claims (12/10 at 8:30 AM EST)
Trade Balance (12/10 at 8:30 AM EST)
Treasury Budget (12/10 at 2:00 PM EST)
Retail Sales (12/11 at 8:30 AM EST)
