Wholesale Sales and Inventories disappointed in March, both slowing to +0.3% MoM.
- Wholesales Sales slowed from an upwardly revised +1.1% MoM in Feb to +0.3% MoM in March.
Sales were weak across the board MoM..
- Wholesale Inventories slowed from +0.9% MoM in Feb to +0.3% MoM in March (lower than the +0.5% MoM expected).
Wholesale Sales growth YoY continues to outpace Inventory growth (which is a somewhat positive point)...
Finally, the Wholesale inventory-to-sales ratio held steady at 1.26x, although Automotive ticked up to 1.171x as did Metals and Hardware.
The weaker than expected inventory growth may shade a little off GDP estimates but it is now very backward-looking so unlikely to warrant a growth panic....