Economy in Brief: April 2012

Chain store sales declined 1.0% last week (+3.2% y/y) following two weeks of strong increase. During the last ten years there has been a 72% correlation between the y/y change in chain store sales and the change in retail sales at [...]

Pump prices for regular gasoline dipped last week to $3.92 per gallon but still were near their highest since last May. The current level is up sixty nine cents (22%) since year-end. Haver Analytics' seasonally-adjusted price for [...]

There's been no forward momentum recently in U.S. production activity. Industrial production was unchanged last month (3.8% y/y) following an unrevised no-change during February. The latest figure again disappointed Consensus [...]

Housing starts unexpectedly returned to a five month low last month. Despite mild weather, the 5.8% decline (+10.3% y/y) left starts at 654,000 in March. Expectations had been for 700,000. Lower starts of multi-family homes accounted [...]

Retail sales in Japan have risen for the fourth successive month and in February were at their highest level in the last thirteen years, as can be seen in the first chart. Data on retail sales are reported in index form on seasonally [...]

The U.S. Commerce Department reported that business inventories rose 0.6% during February following an upwardly revised 0.8% January gain. Business sales increased a moderate 0.7% after a 0.4% January rise. As a result, the [...]

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo reported weaker housing activity. The Composite Housing Market Index for April fell to 25 which was its lowest since January. Earlier figures were unrevised The index of single- [...]

The Empire State Factory Index of General Business Conditions for April fell to 6.56 from an unrevised 20.21 in March. Consensus expectations had been for a lesser decline to 18.0. Based on these figures, Haver Analytics calculates an [...]