The Commerce Department reported on Friday the wholesale inventories rose by 1.2 percent m-o-m in January 2019, following a gain of 1.1 percent m-o-m in December 2018.  That was the biggest increase in wholesale inventories since October last year

Economists had expected inventories to advance 0.2 percent m-o-m.

The January increase in wholesale inventories was partly due to a 1.6 percent m-o-m surge in inventories of non-durable goods, which followed a 0.1 percent uptick in December. The inventories of durable goods climbed by 0.9 percent m-o-m in January after jumping by 1.7 percent in December.

The report also revealed that wholesale sales rose by 0.5 percent in January after falling by 0.9 percent in the previous month. Sales of durable goods were flat in January after advancing 0.6 percent m-o-m in December, while sales of non-durable goods rose 0.9 percent m-o-m after dropping 2.3 percent m-o-m. The inventories/sales ratio for merchant wholesalers edged up to 1.34 in January from 1.33 in December.