Wholesale inventories fell in January

WASHINGTON, March 10 (UPI) -- U.S. wholesale inventories fell 0.2 percent in January from December, while sales rose 1.3 percent, the U.S. Department of Commerce said Wednesday.

From a year ago in January inventories fell 9.7 percent, while merchant wholesale sales were up 10.5 percent.

The figures deal with one of three business inventory components -- the others being manufacturing and retail inventories. As such, the wholesale inventory figures do not generally sway investor activity one way or another.

Commerce said sales of durable goods, expected to last three years or more, at the wholesale level rose 0.3 percent on the month and 9.5 percent from the previous year with sales of hardware, plumbing and heating equipment and supplies up 3.9 percent. Farm product sales rose 5 percent in the month, while wholesale grocery product sales rose 2.4 percent.

The sale of non-durable goods rose 2 percent on the month and 11.3 percent from a year ago.

The inventory-to-sales ratio, indicating how many months it would take for companies to deplete their inventory at current prices, was 1.1, down from 1.35 a year ago.