November Wholesale Inventories

Updated: 08-Feb-22 19:14 ET

Highlights

• Wholesale inventories decreased 0.1% m/m in November ( consensus +0.2%) after increasing 0.1% in October.
• Wholesale sales surged 1.5% after declining 0.9% in October.

Key Factors

• On a year-over-year basis, total sales were up 0.8% while total inventories were up 3.3%.
• Durable inventories decreased 0.3% in November, driven by a 1.3% decline in metals inventories and a 1.1% decline in automotive inventories.
• Nondurable inventories rose 0.3% in November, paced by a 1.1% increase in drugs inventories.
• The inventories-to-sales ratio decreased to 1.35 from 1.37 in October, but was up from 1.32 in the same period a year ago.

Big Picture

• The key takeaway from the report is that sales activity was strong in November, but it will still prove difficult for wholesalers to gain pricing power given that inventory growth remains well ahead of sales growth on a yr/yr basis.