Wholesale trade sales rose in February

The figures point to depleting inventories that should trigger a rebound at the production level.

Inventories reached $419.3 billion by the end of the month, down 1.7 percent from a year ago, the Census Bureau said.

But, sales were down 14.3 percent from a year ago at $319.7 billion, indicating a production increase would presumably occur on a scaled-back level.

In the automobile industry, sales rose 3.7 percent compared with January's sales. Sales in metals and minerals were down 5.6 percent. Non-durable good sales were down 0.4 percent from a month ago.

The inventories/sales ratio for wholesale merchants, except manufacturers' sales branches, was 1.31, up from February 2008, when the ratio stood at 1.14.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International.