- Prior was +1.6%
- Inventories -0.1% vs -0.7% prior
- Inventory to sales 1.69 vs 1.74 prior (prior revised to 1.70)
- Unfilled orders +0.5% vs -1.0% prior
- Capacity utilization 80.2% vs 77.6% prior
The jump in capacity utilization was in the transportation equipment category, suggesting there was some rush to build up auto inventories before the strike.
I do want to highlight just how large inventories are compared to pre-covid. Inflation is some of it but they’re up almost 50% from 2018 levels. That could be a major drag if/when a recession hits, or even on normalization.