Despite a hefty decrease in overall retail inventory, there still aren't enough consumers doling out dough for new duds.
Maybe the rather hefty chunk of iPhone 4 inventory pushed Apple to lower its Q2 shipment volume from 20 million units to 17.5 to 18 million units, but I'm secretly hoping this figure has something to do with the launch of the next-gen iPhone, maybe as soon as September of this year if rumors prove true.
Between January and March, this inventory adjustment added a hefty 3.5 percentage points to annualised GDP growth.
The housing market continues to scuffle, as the National Association of Realtors reported its pending home sales index dropped to 83.0 in March, from a revised reading of 83.8 in February, but worker productivity increased more than expected in the first quarter, and oil prices inched lower after the weekly crude inventory report showed another hefty increase, adding 5.7 million barrels.
The decline came thanks to a 2.9 million barrel build in weekly gasoline inventories, which far outweighed another hefty draw on crude stockpiles, to the tune of 4.8 million barrels.
In these metrics, inventory replenishment contributed a very hefty 3.1 percentage points to the first quarter's 5.8percentt growth rate.
A complete viral inventory would also carry a hefty price tag: about $6.3 billion, the authors estimate.
By custom-building cars the way Dell builds computers, he figures BMW can take slack out of the production process, reduce inventory carrying costs for dealers and avoid hefty rebates on cars that aren't selling.
Now, with gas prices soaring, Honda is in an enviable position of not being burdened with large inventories of gas-guzzling full-frame trucks that require hefty incentives to sell, or the factories that build them.
That, plus car promotions and mid-term election spending, dramatically cut inventory, forcing up prices for airtime by a hefty 70%.
