- Prior month 0.3%
- Business inventories 0.2% versus 0.2% estimate
- Total business inventories to $2590 versus $2585.2 billion last month
- Retail inventories ex auto 0.1% vs 0.5% prior month.
Details from the Census Bureau
Sales:
Total sales (distributive trade + manufacturers’ shipments) rose 1.2% from January 2025
Sales increased 3.6% year-over-year from February 2024
Seasonally adjusted, not adjusted for price changes
Total value: $1,921.1 billion
Inventories:
Total inventories rose 0.2% from January 2025
Inventories were up 2.1% compared to February 2024
Total value: $2,590.0 billion
Seasonally adjusted, not adjusted for price changes
Inventories-to-Sales Ratio:
1.35 in February 2025
Down from 1.37 in February 2024
Not a big spike from the expectations of tariffs. Looking back to Trump 1.0, the business inventories remained fairly contained (pre-covid) but with higher spikes than what we are currently seeing (above +0.5%). One can argue, higher is yet to come (this is February), but retail sales are maintaining strength. So inventories may remain more lean despite the tariffs. We will see.
