September 17, 2010 — U.S. business inventories rose 1.0 percent during July, the seventh consecutive monthly increase and the largest in two years, the Commerce Department reported, according to The Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch.
Business sales rose 0.7 percent on the month, the biggest increase since March. Sales have risen in five of the last seven months, reports the article.
The inventory-to-sales ratio held steady at 1.26 from the prior month.
Economists had predicted inventories would rise about 0.7, according to MarketWatch.
Already-released data show a solid 1.0 percent rise in factory inventories and a large 1.3 percent rise in wholesale inventories in July, reports the article.
The monthly inventories report rarely moves financial markets, mostly because many of the numbers have been previously reported, according to MarketWatch. Economists, however, find the data useful to project quarterly growth, reports the article.
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