January 10, 2006 12:00 PM, EST

Wholesale Inventories Rise 0.4% in November

Click here to write a Letter to the Editor.

.S. wholesale inventories rose 0.4% in November, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

The gain, which followed a 0.2% surge in October, was just below analysts’ forecasts of a 0.5% rise, Bloomberg reported.

Wholesale sales fell 0.7%, the most since April 2003, partly reflecting a decline in the value of fuel purchases.

he inventory-to-sales ratio, which measures the amount of time wholesale goods went unsold, rose to 1.15 months from 1.14 a month earlier.

holesale inventories account for about one-fourth of total business stockpiles.