US business inventories for February 0.2% versus 0.2% estimate

• 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.

This article was written by Greg Michalowski at www.forexlive.com.