WHAT: Commerce Department Wholesale Inventories, February WHEN: Friday 1000 EDT (1400 GMT) FORECASTS (pct) Reuters IFR Previous Inventories +1.0 +1.3 +1.0 Sales +1.8 +2.5 +3.5 IFR COMMENTARY: "Spiking oil prices should again contribute to gains on both sides of the wholesale trade equation in February, helping lift sales 2.5% and inventories 1.3%. Inventory growth has been strong since the summer, but it hasn't kept pace with soaring sales since the fall. If that pattern continues, the inventory-sales ratio could dip to a record low, and we look for that to be the case, with an I/S ratio of 1.12.
That would normally imply that the economy could be in for a large inventory rebuilding phase. That's not as much of a factor for petroleum, however, and petroleum products have made up 42% of the gains in sales levels over the last four months. A return to a more ordinary I/S ratio will likely take the form of as much a slowdown in sales as a faster accumulation of inventories, assuming troubles in the Middle East and North Africa ever calm enough to allow fuel prices to drop back down."
For more Reuters consensus forecasts for U.S. indicators, double-click on [ECI/US]
-- by Theodore Littleton of IFR Markets, a unit of Thomson Reuters.
IFR Preview-US wholesale stocks, sales seen rising
