The Commerce Department announced on Thursday that business inventories dropped 0.2 m-o-m in November, following a revised 0.1 m-o-m advance in November (originally a 0.2 percent gain m-o-m).

That was below the economists' forecast for a 0.1 percent m-o-m decrease.

According to the report, retail inventories decreased 0.8 percent m-o-m, while stocks at wholesalers edged down 0.1 percent m-o-m and stocks at manufacturers rose 0.3 percent m-o-m.

In y-o-y terms, business inventories climbed 2.8 percent in November.