Critical Reasoning

A prominent investor who holds a large stake in the Burton Tool Company has recently claimed that the
company is mismanaged, citing as evidence the company's failure to slow production in response to a recentrise in its inventory of � nished products. It is doubtful whether an investor's sniping at management can ever be
anything other than counterproductive, but in this case it is clearly not justi� ed. It is true that an increased
inventory of � nished products often indicates that production is outstripping demand, but in Burton's case it
indicates no such thing. Rather, the increase in inventory is entirely attributable to products that have already
been assigned to orders received from customers.
In the argument given, the two boldfaced portions play which of the following roles?
(A) The � rst states the position that the argument as a whole opposes; the second provides evidence to
undermine the support for the position being opposed.
(B) The � rst states the position that the argument as a whole opposes; the second is evidence that has been
used to support the position being opposed.
(C) The � rst states the position that the argument as a whole opposes; the second states the conclusion of
the argument as a whole.
(D) The � rst is evidence that has been used to support a position that the argument as a whole opposes; the
second provides information to undermine the force of that evidence.
(E) The � rst is evidence that has been used to support a position that the argument as a whole opposes; the
second states the conclusion of the argument as a whole.

Guys can you please help me how to tackle this boldfaced question ?

Thanks,
Ankit