Wholesale inventories slightly higher

U.S. business inventories rose slightly May to June, while sales fell, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. Sales dropped 1.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted $1.229 trillion. They were up 3 percent from June 2011. Manufacturers' and trade inventories, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of $1.58 trillion, up 0.1 percent from May 2012 and up 5 percent from June 2011. The total business inventories/sales ratio based on seasonally adjusted data at the end of June was 1.29, up from the ratio of 1.26 in June 2011.