The U.S. Census Bureau released its monthly wholesale trade report for June on Aug. 7, showing a rebound in sales after May decline that was revised down further. Meanwhile, inventories ticked up for a second straight month.

The report showed that June sales of merchant wholesalers — except manufacturers’ sales branches and offices, after adjustments or seasonal variations and trading day differences, but not for price changes — were $698.5 billion, up 0.3% from the revised May level and up 5.5% year-over-year.

The May monthly sales percent change was revised down from the preliminary estimate of -0.3% to -0.4%.

MDM’s 2Q25 MarketPulse Report (store link) 

Within wholesale trade, the report showed that seasonally adjusted durable goods sales (49.0% of total) were up 0.5% from May (May was +0.2%) and up 7.6% year-over-year, while seasonally adjusted nondurable sales ticked up 0.1% from May (May was -1.0%) and up 3.5% year-over-year.

MDM Analysis

Following May’s decline and a flat April, the June upswing may indicate better confidence from U.S. industrial B2B buyers after months of tariff-driven macroeconomic uncertainty. It’s worth noting that wholesale distributors likely enacted price increases during May-June that may be reflected in June’s report, with more clarity on that awaiting in the Bureau’s next Producer Price Index on Aug. 14 that covers July wholesale pricing activity.

Inventories

Meanwhile, June’s wholesale trade inventories were valued at $906.3 billion at the end of June, up 0.1% month-over-month and up 1.3% year-over-year. It was a monthly rebound from May’s 0.3% decline. Economists had expected June inventories to rise 0.2%.

U.S. wholesale trade inventories, month-to-month % change

source: tradingeconomics.com

June’s wholesale trade inventories-to-sales ratio was 1.30 — identical to May and down from 1.35 a year earlier. 

June Wholesale Sales by Product Category

Here’s how seasonally adjusted wholesale trade sales of durable and nondurable goods fared in June on both a month-over-month and year-over-year basis across the 19 industry sectors that the Bureau identifies.

Click on the chart for hi-res version.

See the full June wholesale trade report here.