US: Wholesale inventories data in focus - Nomura

Analysts at Nomura suggest that consensus expects a final estimate of US wholesale inventories for April to be unrevised from the advance estimate. 

Key Quotes

“According to an advance report by the Census Bureau, wholesalers’ inventory investment was weak, down 0.3% m-o-m in April. The decline follows a lukewarm increase of 0.1% in March with mixed reading across many product categories. The inventories of autos at wholesalers increased strongly by 1.9% in March, but this increase may have been partially due to lackluster sales in recent months. On the other hands, wholesalers’ inventories of nondurable goods showed broad-based weakness.”

“Excluding petroleum products inventories, which tend to be highly volatile, the inventories of nondurable goods fell 0.5% in the month. In April, it is possible to see some alleviation of weakness as oil prices tend to rise robustly during the spring driving season. However, weak advance readings released by the Census Bureau suggest wholesalers, on balance, may have remained cautious.”