Seasonally adjusted, U.S. manufacturers' inventories were $479.4 billion at the end of September, six tenths of a percentage point higher than the $476.4 billion worth of inventories on hand at the end of August, the U.S. Commerce Department reported on Nov. 14. September's numbers are the most recent data available.

Overall business inventories, which include retailers and merchant wholesalers as well as manufacturers, totaled $1.363 trillion at the end of September, four tenths of a percentage point higher than the $1.357 trillion in inventories on hand at the end of August.

The inventory/sales ratio for manufacturing, based on seasonally adjusted data, was 1.22 at the end of September, compared to 1.17 in August. The inventory/sales ratio for all of business was 1.30 at the end of September, compared with 1.27 at the end of August.