November Wholesale Inventories Up 1.1%

Inventories at U.S. wholesalers climbed a steeper-than-expected 1.1% in November as stocks increased across a wide variety of categories, including cars and computers, a government report showed.

Despite the larger-than-expected gain, a 0.7% rise in sales kept the inventory-to-sales ratio -- a measure of how long it would take to deplete inventories at the current sales pace -- at a lean 1.15 months’ worth, the Commerce Department said.

The report could lead economists to bump up their predictions of fourth-quarter economic growth.