Auto Inventories-Sales Ratio Pushes Back To Recession Cycle Highs

With ugly retail sales and wholesale inventories data rising, the business inventories data rose more than expected (+0.2% vs +0.1%) leaving the inventories-to-sales ratio still deep in recessionary territory. Notably while the overall ratio decline, autos increased to cylce highs at 2.28x. For the 18th month in a row, annual changes in sales declined and inventories rose.

Since the start of 2015, sales have declined YoY while inventories have risen…

And while the inventories-to-sales ratio dropped very modestly, it remains deep in recession territory…

But it is autos that are most worrying given their ‘backbone’ nature of the economy…

Charts: Bloomberg