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Overall industrial output decelerated considerably month-over-month as solid durable goods production was negated by an equal nondurable decline.
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Core wholesale inflation came in below forecasts, indicating that fuel costs tied to the ongoing Iran war conflict are causing most of the inflation burden.
Surging energy prices continue to skew top-line CPI results, while core inflation trailed market expectations and decelerated month-over-month. Get the key numbers and charts here.
MDM’s AI Adoption Index survey closes soon. Participate anonymously to help strengthen the industry benchmark — and get early access to the resulting report and dashboard.
Sales continue to outpace inventories as petroleum products saw another considerable monthly gain tied to the Iran war conflict, but to a much lesser degree than March. Here, view product vertical-specific figures for monthly and year-over-year sales, inventories and inventory/sales ratios pulled from the Census Bureau's latest wholesale trade report.
Monthly orders unsurprisingly fell from March's surprising surge, with momentum seen in the sector's largest customer group — machine shops — while orders from aerospace manufacturers indicate investment in less sophisticated technology.
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The monthly durable goods increase was its best since May 2025, largely driven by transportation equipment and nondefense aircraft. Get our full breakdown of the data here.
With MDM’s Top Distributors Lists about to publish, see where the largest of them appeared on Fortune’s marquee who’s-who of U.S. companies.
Same-day sales were up by 4.5% vs. March, with major variation between warmer/cooler regions.
Solid housing construction spend more than offset a third straight private nonres decline. Get the full numbers and growth/decline changes here.
Meanwhile, three-fourths of survey commentary was negative, with more than half of comments citing pricing volatility as an issue and plenty of others mentioning the Iran war.
Wholesale inventories continued to climb in April after sharp gains in February and March, though the latest advance came in below market expectations — a possible sign that recent stockloading is cooling.
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A new survey from the National Association of Waterfront Employers found U.S. ports will need $6.7 billion in cargo handling equipment investments through 2031, including more than 100 new ship-to-shore cranes, as operators look to modernize terminals and maintain supply chain competitiveness.
We kick off our new "The Hidden Majority" article series with one that focuses on the small- to mid-sized results from the latest Baird-MDM survey combined with our AI research from earlier this year. This piece explores why pricing and margin optimization remain the industry’s biggest untapped AI opportunity — especially for sub-$100M distributors.
U.S. housing starts declined in April as single-family construction slowed, while building permits rebounded month-over-month amid continued volatility in residential construction activity.
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