"U.S. Retail Sales Rose 0.5% in January" December numbers revised upward.

[Clio the Leo]

U.S. Retail Sales Rose 0.5% in January

By JEFF BATER And LUCA DI LEO

WASHINGTON—U.S. retail sales rose more than expected in January, posting a broad-based increase in a sign of promise for the economy at the start of the first quarter.

Retail sales last month increased 0.5%, the Commerce Department said Friday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast a 0.3% increase.

The data were originally scheduled for Thursday release, but there was a rare delay because of a crippling storm that struck an already snowbound Washington.

Aside from the surprisingly strong increase in January, the report showed December retail sales were adjusted upward, to a 0.1% decrease from a previously reported 0.3% decline.

Excluding the car sector, which was flat in January, all other retail sales rose 0.6%, in line with expectations. Ex-auto sales in December fell 0.2%.

The retail-sales data are an important indicator of consumer spending.

Consumer spending makes up 70% of gross domestic product, which is the broad measure of U.S. economic activity. The report generally was positive, indicating consumers are opening their wallets despite high joblessness.

The retail sales report showed U.S. filling station sales rose 0.4%.

Excluding sales of gasoline and cars, other retailers' sales climbed 0.6% last month, the fifth gain in six months.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703525704575060922363790634.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

[peoli]

1. im going to help some february numbers tomorrow.

[Clio the Leo]

3. lol, it's a tough job but SOMEONE has to do it...

.... and if I can do my part by buying a CRAP load of shoes, well, that's a price I'm willing to pay to demonstrate my patriotism. :patriot:

[peoli]

5. there ya go. i actually used to sell shoes at nordstrom, haha.

[Phx_Dem]

6. Now that's what I call patriotism!

:patriot:

[ProSense]

2. "Compared to January last year, sales were up 4.7 percent."

Retail sales rise brightens recovery picture

Good news.

[CBR]

8. Great news!!! nt

[windbreeze]

4. here's another view of it all

Retail Fiction, Redux

If you read the report on retail sales this morning, it might seem like we're in some kind of economic recovery. But pay attention to the little bit of the Census news release that I've highlighted for you...

"The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for January, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $355.8 billion, an increase of 0.5 percent (±0.5%)* from the previous month and 4.7 percent (±0.5%) above January 2009. Total sales for the November 2009 through January 2010 period were up 4.3 percent (±0.3%) from the same period a year ago. The November to December 2009 percent change was revised from -0.3 percent (±0.5%)* to -0.1 percent (±0.2%)*. Retail trade sales were up 0.5 percent (±0.5%)* from December 2009 and 5.3 percent (±0.5%) above last year. Gasoline stations sales were up 29.0 percent (±1.5%) from January 2009 and nonstore retailers sales were up 12.4 percent (±1.7%) from last year."

So when you see this fancy graph, like this in the release:



Draw a line across somewhere between 3% and 6% (I use 6.5% which I'll get to in a minute) because that's the pernicious impact of monetary inflation which is apparently not backed out of the feel-good report which is "not for price changes' on the face of it...



Pop open the latest Federal Reserve money stock report (H.6) and you see that M-1 money stocks are up 6.5% in the past year ($1.6765 trillion vs. $1.5738 trillion Jan '10 vs. '09) but for God's sake, don't put that into the press release because that would mean that unit sales for the past year are flat or worse negative...

quoting George Ure of urbansurvival.com

[HughMoran]

9. lol

You have no fucking idea what that means.

[femrap]

12. And you do????

"The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for January, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $355.8 billion, an increase of 0.5 percent (±0.5%)* from the previous month and 4.7 percent (±0.5%) above January 2009.

See....read the above sentence......"BUT NOT FOR PRICE CHANGES...."

Do you understand now?

Are you sure you're old enough to be on this web site?

[HughMoran]

14. You still haven't enumerated the significance of that statement

Simple logic - I'm an engineer so I deal with facts daily.

Tell. Me. How. Much. Inflation. Distorted. This. Number.

...& is a positive number better than a negative number?

Simple logic. Provide it please.

[femrap]

16. Well, we have something in

common. I, too, am an Engineer. And you are so similar to many that I work with....unable to communicate effectively, no sense of humor except for The 3 Stooges, and usually dog-butt ugly.

Since I deal with these turds M-F, I think I'll stop dealing with another.

Go look at John Williams site...he has a pretty good idea of inflation. My pet's meds went up 16.67% from December to January. Does that make you feel better?

Inflation would be a positive # (price increase). Deflation would be a negative #.

You are simple....that's for sure.

buh bye, dolt.

I bet you have a little one.

[Zynx]

17. I've seen virtually no evidence of 6.5% inflation.

Just because money supply is up 6.5% does not mean that prices are up that much. Maybe that would be true in a very simple Econ 102 view of the world, but it isn't true in a world with variable monetary velocity.

[TexasObserver]

7. Recommend

[femrap]

10. Please note that

inflation/price increases were NOT taken into account.

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[golfguru]

13. Why are you making the good news unnecessarily complicated?

So what does it matter that the sales figures are not adjusted for inflation?
So long as we are spending more money that is good enough. It don't matter one iota
that money buys less this January than a year ago.

[Zynx]

18. First of all, that's always true with this data series. Get over it.

Secondly, we did not have .5% or .6% inflation in the month. I have seen literally zero evidence of that.

[NJmaverick]

15. K&R