Recent Updates
- ** Statistics New Zealand has reported corrections to their Q4 national accounts release from March 20th. Corrections have been updated in the ANZ database.**
- Tajikistan: Monetary Aggregates (Feb)
- Mongolia: Employment and Unemployment (Feb)
- Denmark: Consumer Confidence (Mar)
- Norway: International Reserves, Building Statistics (Feb)
- North Macedonia: Foreign Reserves (Feb-Prelim)
- Netherlands: Labor Force Survey (Feb), Household
- more updates...
Economy in Brief
U.S. Mortgage Loan Applications Strengthen As Financing Costs Ease
The MBA total Mortgage Applications Index rose 1.6% (1.8% y/y) during the week ending March 15...
German PPI Falls and the Trend Continues to Deteriorate
While conservative central bankers continue to worry about the prospect for inflation to surge, global inflation reports continue to undershoot these fears...
U.S. Factory Orders Inch Higher; Shipments Fall Again
Manufacturers' orders gained 0.1% (4.2% y/y) during January...
U.S. Gasoline & Crude Oil Prices Continue to Rise
Retail gasoline prices increased to $2.55 per gallon (-1.9% y/y)...
ZEW's Global Assessments Remain Weak
ZEW survey expectations curled higher this month but continued to stake out very weak readings...
by Tom Moeller June 7, 2005
Chain store sales rose a modest 0.4% during the opening week of June following three consecutive periods of decline according to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)-UBS survey. The slim increase left sales 0.7% below the May average which rose 0.3% versus April.
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 slipped 0.3% w/w (+0.8% y/y), the first decline in four weeks.
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.
Last night's remarks by Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan are available here.
Battle at Bond Bluff: Forecasters vs. Financial Markets from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis can be found here.
| ICSC-UBS (SA, 1977=100) | 06/04/05 | 05/28/05 | Y/Y | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Weekly Chain Store Sales | 452.9 | 451.2 | 3.3% | 4.6% | 2.9% | 3.6% |
