US retail and wholesale inventories fall in April

Retail and wholesale inventories Stateside fell in April amid downwards revisions to estimates for the prior month.

Retail inventories slipped 0.3% month-on-month to reach $613.5bn and were 3.0% higher versus the year-ago level, according to the Census Bureau.

Furthermore, a preliminary estimate for March was revised down to show a gain of 0.3% on the month, instead of the 0.5% initially thought.

In parallel, wholesale inventories declined by 0.3% against March, hitting $592.0bn, and were up by 1.8% on the year.

The preliminary March estimate was revised lower too, from the initially estimated rise of 0.2% to 0.1%.

"The news on inventories was arguably worse [than April's visible trade figures]. Both retail and wholesale inventories declined by 0.3% m/m in April. That is a little hard to square with the massive surge in manufacturing output in April, however. Nevertheless, as it stands, inventories might end up being a modest drag on second-quarter GDP growth too," said Paul Ashworth, chief US economist at Capital Economics.