US Wholesale Inventories Defy Expected Fall
2026-04-09 14:10
By
Luisa Carvalho
1 min. read
US wholesale inventories rose by 0.8% month-over-month to $919.6 billion in February 2026, the most since January 2025, after a downwardly revised 0.3% decrease in January.
Data came in stronger than the anticipated 0.4% fall.
Nondurable goods stocks rose by 1%, rebounding from a 1.1% decrease in the prior month, as sharp rises in farm products (6.2%) and petroleum (5.2%) more than offset modest declines in miscellaneous nondurables (-0.3%) and groceries (-0.2%).
At the same time, inventories grew much faster for durable goods (0.8% vs 0.2%), mainly on account of miscellaneous durable goods (2.5% vs 1.1%), electrical (1.5% vs 1.6%), professional equipment (0.8% vs 1.1%), machinery (0.7% vs 0.1%) and hardware (0.6% vs -0.9%).
On a yearly basis, wholesale inventories advanced 1.8% in February.