Total business inventories held steady during September (3.7% y/y) following a 0.1% August dip, revised from 0.0%. Total business sales weakened 0.2% (+0.5% y/y) after a 0.1% uptick, revised from 0.2%. The inventory-to-sales (I/S) ratio held steady at 1.40 for the fifth straight month.

Retail inventories rose 0.2% (3.8% y/y) in September and reversed the August decline. Auto inventories rose 0.2% (5.3% y/y) while nonauto inventories gained 0.2% (3.0% y/y). Inventories of furniture & home furnishings declined 0.5% (-2.2% y/y), down for the sixth month in the last seven. Clothing inventories eased slightly (+1.1% y/y) after a 0.2% decline. General merchandise store inventories rebounded 0.7% (0.6% y/y) after a 0.3% drop while department store inventories gained 0.4% (-7.2% y/y), rising for only the second month this year. Wholesale inventories declined 0.4% (+4.8% y/y) in September after rising slightly for two months. Factory sector inventories increased 0.3% (2.6% y/y) after little change over three months.

Retail sales declined 0.5% (+3.8% y/y) in September after a 0.6% rise. Sales excluding autos declined 0.2% (3.4% y/y). Wholesale sector sales were unchanged (-0.6% y/y) after easing 0.1%, while shipments from the factory sector fell 0.2% (-1.2% y/y).

The inventory-to-sales ratio in the retail sector rose slightly to 1.45, but has been falling since early this year. The non-auto retail I/S ratio also rose slightly, but nearly matched its all-time low. The wholesale I/S ratio was unchanged at 1.36 in September while the manufacturing I/S ratio held at 1.39.

The manufacturing and trade data are in Haver's USECON database.