We have known for awhile that retail sales increased in June. We have wondered — worried — if inventories could get even worse. Well, worse is certainly possible, but we hoped it might be avoided. According to the US Census Bureau, hope has, just barely, hung on with the inventory to sales ratio increasing 0.8 percent in June. Combined with the 0.6 percent increase in May, we might even hope for a trend. According to the look-ahead for July (more), retail demand may be softening which would create space for inventories to claw back a bit more even in the face of continued disruptions in supply chain velocity.
