Wholesale Inventories Tumble 1.3%

Inventories of goods at U.S. wholesalers unexpectedly dropped in September as climbing sales helped clear warehouses, government figures showed.

Wholesale inventories fell 1.3 percent during the month, helped by a large decline in inventories of non-durable goods such as drugs, apparel and raw farm products.

September’s dip in wholesale inventories hints that many retailers are stocking up ahead of the busiest selling time of the year: the holiday season. “There’s been a buildup in expectations of reasonable, if not strong, retail sales,” said Robert Dederick, a consulting economist at Northern Trust Co. in Chicago.

In other reports this week, the Labor Department said that non-farm productivity - output per number of hours - inched up just 0.2 percent at a seasonally adjusted annual rate from July through September.