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Economy in Brief
U.S. Empire State Manufacturing Index Plummets in August; Lowest Since May '20
The Empire State Manufacturing Index of General Business Conditions plunged to -31.3 in August...
U.S. Import and Export Prices Fall in July; Deepest Since April 2020
Import prices fell 1.4% m/m (8.8% y/y) in July...
U.S. Housing Affordability Declines Further in June
The NAR Fixed Rate Mortgage Housing Affordability Index fell 3.6% in June...
EMU Output Makes Solid Gain in June
The European Monetary Union posted a 0.7% increase for industrial output in June...
U.S. Producer Prices Fall During July; Core Increase Weakens
The Producer Price Index for Final Demand fell 0.5% during July...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller January 30, 2007
The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)-UBS survey indicated that chain store sales last week reversed all of the increases during the prior four weeks with a 0.9% decline.
Nevertheless, the average level of chain store sales in January is up a notably firm 2.8% from the prior month.
During the last ten years there has been a 45% correlation between the y/y change in chain store sales and the change in nonauto retail sales less gasoline.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.
The leading indicator of chain store sales from ICSC-UBS also gave back all of the gains during the prior two weeks with a 1.1% decline and for the month is 0.4% below December.
Access to Credit is the latest International Economic Trends from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and it is available here.
ICSC-UBS (SA, 1977=100) | 1/27/07 | 1/20/06 | Y/Y | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total Weekly Chain Store Sales | 476.4 | 480.9 | 4.9% | 3.3% | 3.6% | 4.7% |