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Title: U.S. Retail Sales Climbed in December to Cap Best One-Year Gain Since 1999
Source:
Bloomberg
URL Source: http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=abzaomDldyVg
Published: Jan 14, 2011
Author: By Timothy R. Homan
Post Date: 2011-01-14 11:43:56 by Brian S
Keywords: None
Views: 918
Comments: 1
Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Sales at U.S. retailers rose in December for a sixth consecutive month, capping the biggest one- year gain in more than a decade. Purchases increased 0.6 percent after climbing 0.8 percent in November, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for a 0.8 percent rise. Sales advanced 6.7 percent in 2010, the most since an 8.2 percent jump in 1999. Analysts this month boosted 2011 forecasts for household spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy, as tax cuts and an improving job market put more money in Americans’ pockets. Ford Motor Co. and Dollar General Corp. are among companies planning to increase payrolls this year, pointing to gains in employment that may accelerate the recovery. Consumers are “feeling that the worst is definitely behind them,” said David Semmens, a U.S. economist at Standard Chartered Bank in New York who accurately forecast the gain in sales. “The first quarter should definitely receive a boost in consumer spending from the fiscal stimulus and the improvement in hiring.” The cost of living climbed 0.5 percent in December, led by higher fuel and food prices, figures from the Labor Department showed today. For all of 2010 it rose 1.5 percent, almost half the 2.7 percent increase the prior year. Record Low The so-called core rate of inflation, which excludes volatile food and fuel costs, rose 0.1 percent for a second month. That held last year’s increase to 0.8 percent, the smallest annual gain since records began in 1958. Stock-index futures held earlier losses after the reports, with the March contract on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropping 0.3 percent to 1,277.4 at 8:53 a.m. in New York. Treasury securities were little changed. The projected increase in retail sales was based on the median of 83 estimates in a Bloomberg survey. Economists’ forecasts ranged from a decline of 0.1 percent to a gain of 1.3 percent. Eight of 13 major categories showed increases last month, led by a 2.6 jump at non-store retailers, which include Internet sales, the biggest advance in more than two years. Demand at auto dealers climbed 1.1 percent. Internet Sales The gain last month was restrained by a 1.9 percent drop at department stores that was the biggest decline since December 2008. That followed a 2.8 percent jump in November, also the biggest in two years, indicating the government may have had trouble adjusting the data for swings in holiday shopping. Excluding autos, gasoline and building materials, which are the figures used to calculate gross domestic product, sales climbed 0.2 percent after jumping 0.8 percent in November. President Barack Obama signed into law an $858 billion bill on Dec. 17 extending Bush-era tax cuts for two years. The measure also renewed emergency jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed and cut 2011 payroll taxes by two percentage points. Economists such as John Herrmann at State Street Global Markets LLC in Boston said the tax package will boost consumer spending in early 2011. Household spending this year will climb 3 percent, the most since 2005, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed this month. That’s up from a 2.6 percent median estimate in the December, before the legislation was signed. Second-Half Pickup Consumer spending picked up in the second half of 2010. Holiday purchases rose 5.5 percent, the best performance since 2005, said MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse, which measures retail sales by all payment forms. That compared with a 4.1 percent gain a year earlier. The numbers include Internet sales and exclude automobile purchases. Auto sales in December reached a 12.53 million annual pace, the highest since the government’s so-called cash-for-clunkers incentive program in August 2009, according to industry data. Ford said Jan. 10 it plans to hire more than 7,000 workers in the next two years, including engineers with expertise in battery-powered cars. The Dearborn, Michigan-based company will hire 4,000 factory workers and 750 engineers this year and add 2,500 hourly workers next year, Mark Truby, a company spokesman, said in an interview in Detroit. Some retailers are raising their profit forecasts. Shares of Tiffany & Co., the New York-based jeweler, climbed this week after announcing profit forecasts that exceed analysts’ expectations. ‘Very Pleased’ “We are very pleased with this worldwide sales growth, and with the increases we saw in every region in both months of the holiday period,” Michael J. Kowalski, chief executive officer of Tiffany’s, said Jan. 11 in a statement. Other companies are boosting their payrolls. Dollar General, the biggest of the U.S. dollar discount stores, said Jan. 3 it plans to add 6,000 jobs as it opens 625 more stores in fiscal 2011. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke last week reiterated the central bank will buy an additional $600 billion of Treasuries through June in an effort to trim joblessness and avert deflation, or an extended drop in prices.
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#1. To: Brian S (#0)
This is due to "inflation." Oh, I know, your MSM propagandists will claim that inflation is "calm," contrary to what everyone sees around them (and government inflation calculations intentionally ignore food and energy prices... Because if they DID include those numbers, then everyone would know the truth; actual inflation is in blue:
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Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestSales at U.S. retailers rose in December for a sixth consecutive month, capping the biggest one- year gain in more than a decade.
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