The U.S. Census Bureau released its monthly wholesale trade report for December on Feb. 7, showing industry sales increased both month-over-month and year-over-year. Meanwhile, inventories declined for a fifth straight month.

MDM’s 4Q24 MarketPulse Report (store link) 

The figure showed that December sales of merchant wholesalers — except manufacturers’ sales branches and officers, after adjustments for season variations and trading differences but not for price changes — were $686.5 billion. That was up 1.0% from the revised November figure (+0.9%) and up 2.8% year-over-year.

December durable goods wholesale trade sales ticked up 0.1% month-to-month and jumped 6.7% year-over-year, while nondurable goods sales improved 1.9% month-to-month and declined 0.6% year-over-year.

Inventories

The report showed that total inventories for merchant wholesalers ended December at $898.5 billion, down 0.5% month-to-month and following a revised 0.1% decline in November. Year-over-year, December inventories were down 0.1%.

December inventories of durable goods were down 0.6% month-to-month, while nondurable goods were down 0.2%.

In the Store: MDM’s U.S. MRO Market Trends Report 

Inventories/Sales Ratio

The December inventories/sales ratio for merchant wholesalers was 1.31, down from November’s 1.33 ratio and December 2023’s 1.35.

Tables

Here’s how seasonally-adjusted wholesale trade sales of durable and nondurable goods fared in December on a month-by-month and year-over-year basis.