Sales: The U.S. Census Bureau announced that the combined value of distributive trade sales and manufacturers' shipments for January, adjusted for seasonal and trading-day differences but not for price changes, was estimated at $1,057.8 billion, down 0.7 percent (±0.2%) from December 2006 and up 1.9 percent (±0.4%) from January 2006.
Inventories: Manufacturers' and trade inventories, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of $1,370.2 billion, up 0.2 percent (±0.1%) from December 2006 and up 5.7 percent (±0.6%) from January 2006.
Inventories/Sales Ratio: The total business inventories/sales ratio based on seasonally adjusted data at the end of January was 1.30. The January 2006 ratio was 1.25.