US DATA: Aug business inventories +0.6% vs +0.4% expected due to
strong retail inventory growth, though mostly in motor vehicles. Retail
inv +1.0%, but only +0.2% excluding +3.0% motor vehicle inv (veh sales
were -0.5% that month). Business inv ex. retail auto +0.4%. Business
sales only +0.1% in Aug, pushing the inv/sales ratio up to 1.27 vs 1.26
in July, the highest since Nov’09, but still below the 1.31 ratio a year
ago. NSA business sales +9.5% yr/yr, and NSA inv +4.6% yr/yr.