Mubasher: US business inventories grew by 0.5% during April at $2.029 trillion on a seasonally adjusted basis, the US Commerce Department’s Census Bureau said on Friday.

On an annualised basis, business inventories climbed by 5.3% last April.

The collective value of distributive trade sales and manufacturers’ shipments declined by 0.2% to $1.462 trillion.

The ratio of overall inventories to sales in April was 1.39, up from 1.38 in March, while it came higher than the ratio of 1.36 in the same month of the preceding year.

By 2:14 pm GMT, the US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major peers, rose by 40% to 97.31.