Crude inventories increased by 1.4 million barrels, for the week ending March 5, from the previous week to 343.0 million barrels and were above the upper limit of the average range for that time of year. U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 13.9 million barrels per day during this period, 149 thousand barrels per day below the previous week’s average. U.S. crude oil imports were averaging 8.5 million barrels per day, down 744 thousand barrels per day from the previous week.
Wholesale Inventories decreased by 0.2% in January to $382.2 billion, lower than the expected 0.3% increase, following a decrease of 0.8% in December and are down by 9.7% from a year ago. Wholesale Sales had increased by 1.3% in January to $346.7 billion and were up 10.5% over the year. Sales of durable goods were up by 0.3% and sales of nondurable goods were up 2.0% over the month. The Inventory/Sales ratio was at 1.10, lower from the 1.35 ratio in January of 2009.
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