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Economic Roundup: February 20, 2012
February 20, 2012
Retail sales for January enjoyed a slight gain to $401.4 billion, an uptick of 0.4 percent from the previous month, the Census Bureau reported last week. More encouragingly, this was 5.8 percent higher than January 2011, and total sales for the November 2011 through January 2012 period were up 6.3 percent from the same period a year ago.
Looking at categories, January’s retail trade sales were up 0.4 percent from December 2011 and 5.5 percent above last year. Food services and drinking establishment sales were up 8.2 percent from January 2011 and building material sales were up 8.1 percent from last year.
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In fact, January retail sales pointed to growing underlying strength in the economy, given that core retail sales, which exclude auto, gasoline and building material sales, actually increased 0.7 percent, indicating increased consumption by Americans.
“[The] retail sales data are better than they look, but they don’t suggest that consumption growth is about to set the economic recovery alight,” wrote Paul Dales, an economist at Capital Economics, in a note to clients.
First-time claims for unemployment benefits placed in the week ending February 11 dropped to 348,000, a decrease of 13,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 361,000, the Employment and Training Administration reported last week. The four-week moving average was 365,250, a decrease of 1,750 from the previous week’s revised average of 367,000.
The total number of insured unemployed workers during the week ending February 4 dropped to 3,426,000, a decrease of 100,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 3,526,000, the Administration also reported. The four-week moving average was 3,492,500, a decrease of 8,250 from the preceding week’s revised average of 3,500,750.
Turning to real estate, building permits issued in January for construction of private housing ticked up to an annual rate of 676,000, which was 0.7 percent over December’s revised rate of 671,000, and 19 percent over the January 2011 estimate of 568,000, the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development reported last week. Permits for single-family homes issued in January were at a rate of 445,000; this is 0.9 percent above the revised December figure of 441,000.
Actual starts on construction of private housing initiated in January hit an annual rate of 699,000, which was 1.5 percent above December’s revised estimate of 689,000 and 9.9 percent higher than the January 2011 rate of 636,000. Starts on single-family homes in January declined to a rate of 508,000, which was 1 percent less than December’s revised rate of 513,000.
Completions of private housing in January were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 530,000, which was 12 percent below December’s revised estimate of 602,000, but 4.1 percent higher than the January 2011 rate of 509,000. Completions of single-family homes in January were at a rate of 389,000, which was 14.9 percent under December’s revised rate of 457,000.
Industrial production was unchanged from December to January, as a gain of 0.7 percent in manufacturing was offset by declines in mining and utilities for the month, the Federal Reserve reported last week. Looking at specific segments, the index for motor vehicles and parts jumped 6.8 percent and the index for other manufacturing industries increased 0.3 percent. The output of utilities fell 2.5 percent, as demand for heating was held down by temperatures that moved further above seasonal norms; the output of mines declined 1.8 percent.
This week sees an extremely light calendar of financial headlines due to the Presidents’ Day holiday, starting Wednesday with existing home sales for January form the National Association of REALTORS®. This is followed Thursday by initial jobless claims for last week from the Employment and Training Administration. The week closes with the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment score for February and new home sales for January from the Census Bureau.
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