Wholesale Inventories Rise 1.2% in February

he Commerce Department said Thursday that inventories at U.S. wholesalers jumped 1.2% in February, the most since November 1999. Analysts said the report was a sign companies may have stepped up production enough to rebuild stockpiles as demand rises, Bloomberg reported.

The increase brought the value of inventories to $299.7 billion and followed a revised 0.2% rise in January. Sales increased 1.3%, Commerce said.

Economists had projected a 0.3% increase in wholesale inventories, Bloomberg reported. Wholesalers account for about 25% of all business inventories.

The stock-to-sales ratio, a measure of how long it would it would take to draw down inventories at the current sales pace, held steady for a third straight month at a record low of 1.17 months.

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