Do Business Inventories and Sales Show a Boosted Market?

January wasn’t the best of months when it came to sales in the U.S., but there are signs that strong growth is returning.

The Manufacturing and Trade Inventories and Sales report showed adjusted January sales adding up to $1.268 trillion in January, with $481.8 billion coming from manufacturers, $371.6 billion from retailers, and $415.4 billion from merchant wholesalers.

The sales numbers represented a slight decline from December of last year, when they reached $1.272 trillion. Manufacturers and merchant wholesalers were the two groups that experienced the decrease in sales, while retailers actually boosted sales by about $1.21 billion.

On a year-over-year basis, January was actually a good month for sales, as total business rose by more than $35 billion.

Inventories were up across the board. Total inventories rose 1 percent from December and 5.6 percent, year-over-year. Manufacturers saw a 0.5 percent increase from December, with a 2.2 percent year-over-year gain. Retailers saw the biggest gain, with a 1.5 percent increase from December and 9 percent increase, year over year.  Merchant wholesales inventories rose just 1.2 percent from December, but they jumped 6.5 percent from the previous January.

Retailers proved to be the strongest group, topping manufacturers and merchant wholesalers, in terms of boosted month-over-month and year-over-year performance. However, manufacturers and merchant wholesalers still had higher sales figures.

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