In Brief: Inventories Up 0.2%, Sales Fell 0.5% in May

U.S. business inventories rose 0.2% in May, to a seasonally adjusted $1.019 trillion, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

The May increase came after a revised April hike of 0.4%, to an adjusted $1.017 trillion. The April increase had previously been estimated at 0.3%. Total business stocks equaled 1.37 month of sales in May, up from 1.36 month in the preceding month.

Overall business sales in May decreased 0.5%, to an adjusted $743.20 billion at an annual rate after rising 0.2% the month before to an adjusted $746.77 billion. That sales decline was the sharpest since a 0.7% decline in June 1996, Commerce said.

Despite the overall inventory increase, auto inventories fell 1.3% in May, to $87.91 billion from April, on an adjusted basis. On an unadjusted basis, overall business inventories in May fell 0.1% to $1.021 trillion, from the previous month's $1.022 billion, and were up 2.8% from a year earlier.