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- US: New Residential Sales, Personal Income (Oct), Consumer Sentiment (Oct-final), GDP & Corporate Profits (Q3-2nd), Advance Durable Goods, Adv Trade & Inventories, Final Bldg Permits (Oct)
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Economy in Brief
U.S. Durable Goods Orders Rise Further in October
Manufacturers’ orders for durable goods increased 1.3% m/m (-0.3% y/y) in October...
U.S. Goods Trade Deficit Deepens During October
The advance estimate of the U.S. trade deficit in goods deepened to $80.29 billion during October...
U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Rise for a Second Week
Initial claims for regular state unemployment insurance rose again this past week ending November 21 to 778,000...
U.S. Mortgage Applications Rebound
The MBA Mortgage Loan Applications Index rebounded in the week ended November 20, rising 3.9% w/w...
Japan's Employment Makes Partial Recovery
With a third wave of infection coursing its way through Japan's economy, the labor market continues to make some progress...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller May 17, 2005
Chain store sales fell a sharp 1.0% last week following the 0.7% surge which opened the month of May, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)-UBS survey. Sales in May nevertheless remained 0.9% above the April average which rose 0.6% from March.
During the last ten years there has been a 56% correlation between the y/y change in chain store sales and the change in non-auto retail sales less gasoline, as published by the US Census Department. Chain store sales correspond directly with roughly 14% of non-auto retail sales less gasoline.
The leading indicator of chain store sales from ICSC rose 0.4% (-0.1% y/y) in early May and reversed all of the prior week's decline.
The ICSC-UBS retail chain-store sales index is constructed using the same-store sales (stores open for one year) reported by 78 stores of seven retailers: Dayton Hudson, Federated, Kmart, May, J.C. Penney, Sears and Wal-Mart.
| ICSC-UBS (SA, 1977=100) | 05/14/05 | 05/07/05 | Y/Y | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Weekly Chain Store Sales | 456.7 | 461.4 | 3.3% | 4.6% | 2.9% | 3.6% |
