Posts Tagged ‘retail sales’
Santa Hits the Beach as Warm Weather Continues in December
The warmth and subtle humidity in the air stirs emotions as one envisions heading to the ball park for opening day, preparing for the start of a new fishing season, or produces visuals (perhaps with dread) of how that new swimsuit or bikini will fit. Oh wait, it’s December 22nd! The northeast part of the United…
Read MoreBlack Friday Retail Sales Strong – Demonstrate the US Economy is Nowhere Near a Recession
A number of Black Friday retail sales surveys were released over the weekend. All measures pointed to a robust start to the holiday shopping season. Strong data were received from the National Retail Federation, ShopperTrak, and Comscore. None of the individual sales measures are completely reliable, but the collective strength is likely indicative of a…
Read MoreSanta Will Come! – Strong Back-To-School Sales an Indicator for Holiday Season
The back to school season was surprisingly resilient in August and September. We now have the full set of retail sales data available from company same store sales, the Johnson Redbook Survey, and Census retail sales. The back-to-school season varies by region and by state as school start dates aren’t uniform. Further complicating analysis is…
Read MoreChina’s Golden Week Retail Sales Remain Strong – No Hard Landing
China’s Golden Week is one of two major 7-day national holidays in China. The two holidays are the Lunar New Year which begins sometime in January or February and Golden Week which starts in early October. The idea of a week long holiday is to provide an opportunity to take time off from work and…
Read MoreUS Economy Demonstrates Resiliency – Retailer Comp Sales Strengthen in September
Despite massive uncertainty stemming from the manner in which Europe is handling its financial crisis, a gut wrenching stock market sell-off (the S&P 500 was down 7.2% last month), negative headlines almost every day, and predictions towards the end of the month that the US economy is now “in a recession”, the US consumer continues…
Read MoreRetail Chain Sales Very Strong – No Recession
It was particularly impressive that sales in August were not only strong for retailers that sell lots of food and consumer products (which benefited from the buying panic pre-Irene) but that they were broadly strong. While the food and broadline retailers should have benefited from some buying “pull-forward” before the storm, other retailers such as…
Read MoreRedbook Chain Store Sales Remain Strong – Don’t Indicate Slowdown
There has been considerable airplay relating to the “near recessionary” levels of many economic indicators in August. Readings for consumer confidence, economic optimism, and Fed Surveys from Philadelphia, New York, and Richmond have all contracted. These items have led many economists and forecasters to predict a sharp downturn in ISM (released Thursday), and have led…
Read MoreCome on Irene – I Swear, Well He Means, At This Moment You Mean Everything
Ok – I know these lyrics are for “Eileen” and not “Irene” but the names sound similar and many confuse the name of the one hit wonder from Dexy’s Midnight Runners anyhow. This morning I woke up in downtown Manhattan and things were very much normal, the calm before the storm i suppose. From an…
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