On a seasonally adjusted basis, manufacturers' inventories were $466.25 billion, up six-tenths of a percentage point, at the end of October, the most recent month for which data are available, the U.S. Commerce Department reported on Dec. 13.
Overall business inventories, of which manufacturing inventories are a part, were $1.286 trillion at the end of October, up three-tenths of a percentage point, half the rate of increase among manufacturers. The reason: Inventories among retailers and merchant wholesalers, the other two business inventory component groups, increased by much smaller amounts of one-tenth percent and two-tenths percent, respectively.
