Although not as strong an upward climb as in May, June’s inventories showed a continued surge with a 0.4 percent rise, not quite meeting May’s 0.5 percent. The figures were supplied by the US Department of Commerce which also revealed that there was a small gain in stock prices for non-automobile retailers.

The figures released last week for wholesale and manufacturing inventories point to a second-quarter growth estimate which may be slashed as much as a half of a percentage point by the time the government publishes its revisions on its predictions later this month.

Smaller inventories are a good sign for the third-quarter of GDP.

Sales are also on the rise. In June business sales went forward by 0.3 percent, matching a similar gain in May. If Junes pace were to continue it would take businesses to clear their shelves of their inventory in 1.20 months, the same as in May.