U.S. Business Inventories Up 0.3% in May

U.S. business inventories rose 0.3% in May to a seasonally adjusted $1.860 trillion, the Commerce Department said Friday.

Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had forecast a 0.3% gain.

Retailers increased stockpiles by 0.5%. The biggest jump came at auto dealers, where inventories advanced 1.1%. From a year earlier, auto inventories were up 7.5%.

Manufacturing inventories fell 0.1% from the prior month, and wholesaler inventories rose 0.4% from the prior month.

The Commerce Department data on business inventories can be found at

http://www.census.gov/mtis/www/data/pdf/mtis_current.pdf

Write to Jeffrey Sparshott at jeffrey.sparshott@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 14, 2017 10:19 ET (14:19 GMT)