Wholesale Inventories in United States

Measures the monthly change in the value of inventories held by US wholesalers (wholesale trade, NAICS 42), seasonally adjusted. It forms part of the Advance Wholesale Inventories release the Census Bureau publishes ahead of the final Manufacturing and Trade Inventories and Sales (MTIS) report.

Based on the Census Bureau's Monthly Wholesale Trade Survey of a sample of wholesale firms. The month-on-month change is calculated on the dollar level of inventories, seasonally adjusted.

A leading indicator of the inventory cycle: an unwanted build-up of stocks tends to precede cuts in production, while a drawdown points to firm demand. The change in inventories feeds directly into the GDP calculation, so the market watches it as an input to growth.

It is a preliminary (Advance) figure, subject to revision when the final MTIS data are released a month later. It does not distinguish desired from unwanted stocks, so it is best read alongside sales through the inventories-to-sales ratio.