The US Census Bureau announced Thursday that both wholesale trade sales and inventories were up in the month of December. Overall sales were up 1.3 percent from November and up 11.8 percent from December 2010. Overall inventories were up 1 percent from November and up 10 percent from last year. The December 2011 sales/inventories ratio was 1.15--down 0.01 from December 2010.
More specifically, the adjusted automotive industry sales rose 3.6 percent from November and increased 25 percent over December 2010. The automotive industry inventories rose 2.8 percent from November and were up 17.1 percent over December 2010.
In the adjusted metals industry, sales jumped 6.5 percent from November and were up 21.7 percent from December 2010. The metals industry inventories increased 0.3 percent and 17.6 percent over December of last year.
Another industry seeing positive numbers is machinery. Adjusted sales were up 5.2 percent from November and climbed 22.3 percent from December 2010. Inventories moved up by 0.8 percent from November and surged 12.9 percent from December of last year.