U.S. June Wholesale Inventories and Sales (Text)

The following is the text of the wholesale inventories report from the Commerce Department.

Sales. The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that June 2012 sales of merchant wholesalers, except manufacturers’ sales branches and offices, after adjustment for seasonal variations and trading-day differences but not for price changes, were $402.9 billion, down 1.4 percent from the revised May level, but were up 3.1 percent from the June 2011 level. The May preliminary estimate was revised downward $1.1 billion or 0.3 percent June sales of durable goods were down 0.7 percent from last month, but were up 5.7 percent from a year ago. Sales of machinery, equipment, and supplies were down 2.8 percent from last month. Sales of nondurable goods were down 1.9 percent from May, but were up 0.9 percent from last June. Sales of petroleum and petroleum products were down 5.3 percent from last month and sales of farm product raw materials were down 2.8 percent.