not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month
level of $1,436.7 billion, up 0.4 percent (±0.1%) from October 2007 and
up 3.5 percent (±0.3%) from November 2006.</p>
<p><strong>Inventories/Sales Ratio.</strong> The total business inventories/sales
ratio based on seasonally adjusted data at the end of November was 1.24. The
November 2006 ratio was 1.31.<font size="2"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
<p align="left"><font size="2"> </font></p>
</font></font><font size="2">
<p align="center"><img src="img/ratios.gif" alt="Total Business Inventories and Sales Ratios"></p>
<p align="left"><font face="Helvetica" size="2"><strong>The Manufacturing and
Trade Inventories and Sales Report for December is scheduled to be released
February 13, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. EST.</strong><br>
<br>
<strong>For information, visit the Census Bureau’s Web site at <<a href="
http://www.census.gov/bussales">http://www.census.gov/bussales</a>></strong>. This report is also available the day of issue through the Department of Commerce’s
STAT-USA (202-482-1986). </font></p>
<p align="left"><em><font size="2">* The 90 percent confidence interval includes
zero. The Census Bureau does not have sufficient statistical evidence to conclude
that the actual change is different from zero.</font></em></p>
<p align="center"> </p>
<p align="center" style="page-break-before:always;"> </p>
<p align="center"><font face="Helvetica" size="3"><strong>Table 1. Estimated Monthly
Sales and Inventories for Manufacturers, Retailers, and Merchant Wholesalers</strong></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3"><br>
(In millions of dollars)</p>
</font>
<p align="center"><font face="Helvetica" size="2"><img src="img/table1.gif" alt="Table 1. Estimated Monthly Sales and Inventories for Manufacturers, Retailers, and Merchant Wholesalers"></font></p>
<p><font face="Helvetica" size="2">See footnotes and notes at the end of Table
3. <br>
<br>
(p) Preliminary.<br>
(r) Revised.<br>
(s) Adjusted data were revised due to concurrent seasonal adjustment. No revisions
were made to Not Adjusted data. <br>
</font></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p align="center"><font face="Helvetica" size="3"><strong>Table 2. Percent Changes
for Sales and Inventories--Manufacturers, Retailers, and Merchant Wholesalers</strong></font></p>
<p align="center"><font face="Helvetica" size="2"><img src="img/table2.gif" alt="Table 2. Percent Changes for Sales and Inventories -- Manufacturers, Retailers, and Merchant Wholesalers"></font></p>
<p align="center"> </p>
<p align="center"> </p>
<p align="center" style="page-break-before:always;"><font face="Helvetica" size="3"><strong><br>
Table 3. Estimated Monthly Retail Sales, Inventories, and Inventories/Sales
Ratios, By Kind of Business<br>
(In millions of dollars)</strong></font></p>
<p align="center"><font face="Helvetica" size="2"><img src="img/table3.gif" alt="Table 3. Estimated Monthly Retail Sales, Inventories, and Inventories/Sales Ratios, by Kind of Business"></font></p>
<p><font face="Helvetica" size="2"> (p) Preliminary. <br>
(r) Revised. <br>
(s) Adjusted data were revised due to concurrent seasonal adjustment. No revisions
were made to Not Adjusted data. </font></p>
<p><font face="Helvetica" size="2"><sup>1</sup> Inventories are on a non-LIFO
basis as of the end of the month. <br>
<sup>2</sup> Adjusted for seasonal variations and, in the case of sales, for
trading-day differences and holiday variations. Concurrent seasonal adjustment
is being used to adjust all sales, shipment, and inventory estimates. Concurrent
seasonal adjustment uses all available unadjusted estimates as input to the
X-12-ARIMA program. The factors derived from the program are applied to the
current and previous month estimates and for retail and wholesale estimates
a year ago as well. For retail sales, concurrent seasonal adjustment is also
used to adjust the advance estimates (published one month before the preliminary
estimates) and the estimates one year before the advance month. This explains
the revision to retail estimates from a year ago.<br>
<sup>3 </sup>Manufacturers sales refer to the value of shipments by manufacturers.
The shipments data from individual manufacturers are adjusted prior to tabulation
for the number of trading days as well as for any variations in the length of
the reporting period. </font></p>
<p><font face="Helvetica" size="2">Note: U.S. and group totals include kinds of
business not shown. The Manufacturing and Trade Inventory and Sales estimates
are based on data from three surveys: the Monthly Retail Trade Survey, the Monthly
Wholesale Trade Survey, and the Manufacturers Shipments, Inventories, and Orders
Survey. The sampling variability for retailers and merchant wholesalers can
be used to construct a 90 percent confidence interval for the estimates. Over
all possible samples, 90 percent of such intervals will cover the true estimate.
These intervals are given in parentheses for the estimates on the front page.
If, for example, the estimate is up 0.8 percent and the margin of sampling error
is ±1.2 percent, the 90 percent confidence interval is -0.4 percent to
+2.0 percent. If the range contains 0, it is uncertain whether there was an
increase or decrease. Measures of reliability for Retail and Wholesale sales
and inventory levels and