US: Business inventories rise 0.4% in May to meet experts' estimates

"Manufacturers’ and trade inventories were estimated at an end-of-month level of $1,936.9 billion, up 0.4 percent (±0.1 percent) from April 2018 and were up 4.4
percent (±1.2 percent) from May 2017," the U.S. Census Bureau reported on Monday.

Key quotes from the official press release

• The combined value of distributive trade sales and manufacturers’ shipments for May was estimated at $1,449.7 billion, up 1.4 percent from April 2018 and was up 8.6 percent from May 2017.
• The total business inventories/sales ratio based on seasonally adjusted data at the end of May was 1.34.
  • The May 2017 ratio was 1.39.