Liferep.net

July 2016

// July 12th, 2016 // Daily News

US wholesale inventories rise slightly, sales extend gains

Reuters

U.S. wholesale inventories rose marginally in May as automobile stocks tumbled, suggesting inventory investment likely remained a drag on economic growth in the second quarter.
The Commerce Department said on Tuesday that wholesale inventories edged up 0.1 percent. Inventories for April were revised up to show a 0.7 percent gain instead of the previously reported 0.6 percent increase.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast wholesale inventories rising 0.2 percent in May.
Inventories are a key component of gross domestic product changes. The component of wholesale inventories that goes into the calculation of GDP – wholesale stocks excluding autos – increased 0.4 percent in May.
Higher prices for commodities, including petroleum, largely accounted for the gain in ex-autos wholesale inventories in May.
As such, this will probably not provide a boost to second-quarter GDP growth, when adjusted for inflation.
Inventory investment subtracted just over two-tenths of a percentage point from GDP growth in the first quarter, helping to hold back the rise in output to a 1.1 percent annualized rate. Second-quarter GDP growth estimates are currently around a 2.4 percent rate.
A report last week showed inventories at manufacturers slipped in May. Retail inventory data for May will be published on Friday.
Inventories have weighed on GDP growth since the third quarter of 2015 as businesses sell piles of unwanted merchandise. Businesses accumulated record inventory in the first half of 2015, which outstripped demand.
Though the pace of accumulation slowed, inventories remained high in the second half of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016.
In May, wholesale stocks of petroleum increased 3.2 percent after rising 1.4 percent in April. Auto inventories fell 1.9 percent, the biggest decline since September 2013, while farm products inventories soared 5.9 percent.
Wholesalers are making some progress in reducing the inventory glut. Sales at wholesalers increased 0.5 percent in May, adding to the prior month’s 0.8 percent gain.
With sales rising for a third straight month, it would take wholesalers 1.35 months to clear shelves, down from 1.36 months in April. Sales were driven by an 5.6 percent surge in petroleum, as well as electrical goods, which rose 2.4 percent.
There were also rises in sales of furniture and computer equipment.

Today’s Inspiration

Works That Work

by Joyce Meyer – posted July 12, 2016

For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the Fountain of living waters, and they have hewn for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns which cannot hold water.
—Jeremiah 2:13

I believe one of the biggest ways people waste time is by doing what the Bible calls “dead works.” I like to define a dead work as a “work” that doesn’t work! That means that you are trying to make something happen, but no matter what you do, it simply does not work. When that happens, the reason is that the work is yours and not God’s. When you stop planning and striving, and come to the end of yourself, then God will begin to move. That doesn’t mean you have no responsibility; it simply means your work needs to be inspired and empowered by the Holy Spirit, not conceived in your natural mind and fueled by your natural strength.

There are many different kinds of dead works. For example, anything we do with a wrong motive is a dead work. Another type of dead work would be the efforts we make without asking God to get involved. Take another look at today’s Scripture and imagine how frustrated you would be if you spent all day digging a well, thinking you would get water, and at the end of the day, tired and worn out, your only result was a big hole.

Things we do outside of God’s timing or His will are also dead works. Learn to discern when you are working on something that is not working and refuse to do anything that is not in God’s will and timing.

Love Yourself Today: What do you need to stop doing so you can use your time more wisely?