Inventory to sales ratio shows shallow industrial recession not abating

The other day I wrote that the data point to watch this week was the inventory to sales ratio for wholesalers. This morning’s report (for August, this series is reported with a significant delay) was somewhat bearish. Sales fell by -1.0%, while inventories rose by +0.1%. The overall inventory to sales ratio, shown in the graph below, rose slightly from 1.30% to 1.31%: