Despite all the hype and wishful thinking, retail sales, reported Thursday morning, fell in December. This came as a surprise to analysts, many of whom forecasted increases of 2% or more, though there were some calling for declines of up to 3%. The holiday season wasn't enough to overcome cautious consumer spending, which has been driven largely by an unemployment rate that remains stubbornly high at 10%.

Data from the Commerce Department released Thursday puts the decline in retail sales from November to December at 0.3%, while expectations were for an increase of 0.5%. Excluding auto sales, the drop was 0.2%, still weaker than the 0.3% increase anticipated by analysts. This decline follows an increase of 1.2% in October and 1.8% in November. In September, retail sales fell 2% from August.

Continue reading Retail Sales Fall in December, Surprising Analysts

Retail Sales Fall in December, Surprising Analysts originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 11:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading U.S. Trade Gap Widens in November

U.S. Trade Gap Widens in November originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that housing starts rose a bit in September, helped by a rise in single-family home construction, but this bit of good news came with some bad news that applications for new home construction were down in the month.

According to the report, construction of new homes and apartments rose by 0.5% in the month, to an annualized rate of 590,000 units. While any growth for housing starts comes as good news in the current market, it is not as good as it appears at first glance, considering that analysts had been expecting to see the annualized rate increase to 610,000 units.

Continue reading Housing starts rose in September, but applications for new construction fell

Housing starts rose in September, but applications for new construction fell originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Retail sales gained a seasonally-adjusted 2.7% in August, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. This follows a 0.2% decline in July. The August results beat analyst expectations soundly, lending support to talk of a recovery. The Cash for Clunkers program is cited as contributing to August sales.

Without autos, sales increased 1.1%, still ahead of the anticipated 0.4% gain. Take gas out of the measure, as well, and retail sales grew 0.6%.

Inventories fell in July, for the twelfth month in a row, with the 1% decline a tad higher than the 0.9% anticipated by many economists.

Continue reading Retail sales hint at jobless recovery

Retail sales hint at jobless recovery originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Oil falls on weekly inventory report

Oil falls on weekly inventory report originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Construction of single family homes rises in July

Construction of single family homes rises in July originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading June housing construction makes unexpected jump

June housing construction makes unexpected jump originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Retail sales make surprising jump in January

Retail sales make surprising jump in January originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 12 Feb 2009 10:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Home construction hits record low - could be good news

Home construction hits record low - could be good news originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Fed should like moderate Q4 GDP growth originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 29 Mar 2007 13:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Ben Berkowitz is the business news editor at AOL. His weekly column highlights business stories with significant implications that were overlooked at first glance.

The story you didn't read this week but should have is the news that the Commerce Department is going to make $40 coupons available to people with TVs that can't tune digital signals and aren't hooked up to satellite or cable.

This is important because, in less than two years, analog TV as we know it will end in the United States. From February 17, 2009, stations must broadcast in digital only. The reason of course is money; it takes a lot less spectrum to broadcast digital signals than analog, and all those analog airwaves are worth untold billions of dollars.

So it's in Uncle Sam's best interest to ensure that the switchover happens, and the best way to do that is to do the heavy lifting (financially) for those who still love their rabbit ears.

Here's the funny part though (funny as in "oh geez not again," not "hah hah" funny): to get one of these $40 coupons from Uncle Carlos (AKA Commerce Secretary Gutierrez), all you have to do is ask.

Even if you don't need one, you can still go to a special National Telecommunications and Information Administration Web site starting Jan. 1, 2008 and request up to two $40 coupons per household. (Each converter will be about $50). The best part is this: if the initial $990 million in coupons runs out, the NTIA can ask Congress for $510 million more.

Continue reading The Story You Didn't Read: Digital killed the TV star

The Story You Didn't Read: Digital killed the TV star originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Still undecided if housing is slowing down? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 17 Nov 2006 10:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Commerce Department reported today that personal income was up 0.5 percent, slightly higher than August's revised 0.4 percent, but personal consumption slowed to just 0.1 percent in September, less than the revised 0.2 percent for August. These numbers are exactly the opposite what many economist were expecting. Economists expected to see a 0.4 percent increase for personal income and a 0.2 percent increase for consumer spending.

This report reflects the trend we saw in last week's GDP report from the Commerce Department which showed that economic growth was the weakest in three years. It also reinforces the Fed's decision to hold short-term interest rates steady amid signs that the economy is slowing.

Spending on durable goods -- those designed to last three years or longer -- increased by 1.6 percent, which is much better than August's 1.4 percent decline. But spending on non-durable goods declined by 1.2 percent after gaining in August by 0.2 percent.

Personal savings continues to be in the negative with a drop of 0.2 percent. That's now 18 months that savings has been in the red. I suspect personal income growth would need to increase much more dramatically to see the savings rate turnaround.

Slow income and consumption growth in September originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 30 Oct 2006 11:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.