Economy/Ecommerce
‘Economy Watch’ Podcast with Dees Stribling: Retail Sales Up
Retail sales up, federal budget deficit down.
Economy Watch: Leading Economic Indicators Spike in March
The Conference Board reported that its Leading Economic Index was up in March (and its Coincident and Lagging Indexes were up, too).
Economy Watch: State Unemployment Rates Mostly Down in March
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, during March 21 states had unemployment rate decreases, 17 states and the District of Columbia had increases, and 12 states had no change, compared with February.
Economy Watch: Initial Unemployment Claims Reaches Another Low
Initial unemployment claims came in at an annualized 304,000, an uptick of 2,000 from the previous week’s revised level, according to the U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday. Last week the weekly claims rate was at a post-recession low.
Economy Watch: Housing Starts See Uptick in March
U.S. housing starts in March came in at an annualized rate of 946,000 units, according to the Census Bureau on Wednesday. This is 2.8 percent higher than the revised February estimate of 920,000 units, but 5.9 percent lower than the March 2013 rate of 1.01 million units.
Economy Watch: Homebuilders a Little More Optimistic
The National Association of Home Builders reported that that the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, which gauges builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes, rose one point to 47 in April from a downwardly revised March reading of 46.
‘Economy Watch’ with Dees Stribling: Fed Not Raising Rates
Fed not raising rates, even though employment’s better than expected.
Economy Watch: Retail Sales See Healthy Uptick
The Census Bureau reported that retail and food services sales for March, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences—but not for price changes—came in at $433.9 billion, an increase of 1.1 percent from February.
Economy Watch: Consumers Feeling Better About Current Conditions, Outlook
The preliminary Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index for April came in at 82.6, according to the university, an increase from 80.0 at the end of March, and 79.9 in mid-March. The latest reading is the highest since last summer.
Economy Watch: Initial Unemployment Claims Lowest in Seven Years
For the week ending April 5, initial unemployment claims came in at 300,000, a sharp decrease of 32,000 from the previous week’s revised level, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.