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Business Title: U.S. Retail Sales Unexpectedly Fall, November Shows Bigger Gain Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Sales at U.S. retailers unexpectedly fell in December following a gain the prior month that was larger than previously estimated, signaling a consumer recovery will be uneven. The 0.3 percent decrease came after a 1.8 percent jump the prior month, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. The government last month calculated the November gain at 1.3 percent. A jobless rate projected to average 10 percent this year, tight credit and depressed home values mean any recovery will be slow to develop. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said last month a weak labor market was among the “formidable headwinds” facing the economy and reiterated a pledge to keep interest rates low for “an extended period.” “People are still anxious and there isn’t much going on in terms of job or income growth,” Gus Faucher, a senior economist at Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania, said before the report. “We’ll see weak gains in spending over the next six months.” Retail sales were projected to rise 0.5 percent after an originally reported 1.3 percent gain in November, according to the median estimate of 80 economists in a separate Bloomberg survey. Forecasts ranged from no change to a gain of 1.2 percent. For all of 2009, retail sales fell 6.2 percent, the biggest drop since comparable records began in 1993. Purchases decreased 0.5 percent in 2008, the only other decline on record. Excluding Cars Purchases excluding autos dropped 0.2 percent in December compared with the 0.2 percent gain anticipated by the median forecast of economists surveyed. Some of the decreases in sales last month followed gains in November, indicating problems with adjusting the data for seasonal issues may have played a role in the see-saw pattern. The mid December blizzard in parts of the eastern U.S. may also have contributed to the decrease. Auto sales fell 0.8 after a 1.2 percent November gain. Industry data showed an increase in purchases. Cars sales slumped in September, the month after the government’s “cash- for-clunkers” plan expired. Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. were among automakers that reported December sales gains. The seasonally adjusted sales rate was 11.2 million vehicles, up from 10.9 million in November, according to industry figures released last week. Excluding automobiles, purchases were forecast to increase 0.3 percent, according to the survey median. Core Sales Excluding autos, gasoline and building materials -- the retail group the government uses to calculate gross domestic product figures for consumer spending -- sales fell 0.3 percent after a 0.8 percent increase. The government uses data from other sources to calculate the contribution from the three categories excluded. While companies are firing fewer workers than they did in early 2009, they’ve been slow to hire. A Labor Department report last week showed the economy lost 85,000 jobs in December after adding 4,000 a month earlier. Against that backdrop, companies are resorting to discounting. A surge of online shopping and bargain-hunting after an East Coast snowstorm snarled sales the weekend before Christmas lifted December comparable-store sales 3 percent, the biggest gain since April 2008, Retail Metrics said Jan. 7. “We believe consumers will remain focused on value as the economy improves,” Carol Meyrowitz, chief executive officer of TJX, said Jan. 7 after the operator of T.J. Maxx and other low- priced apparel retailers reported December sales were up 21 percent over the same period a year earlier. Best Buy said Jan. 8 that sales increased 13 percent last month from a year earlier. The Richfield, Minnesota-based company was among retailers that extended discounts beyond Christmas to help generate sales. The biggest electronics retailer trimmed the price on a Lenovo netbook computer by a third, to $197 after Christmas. Americans will spend more in 2010 than previously estimated, economists surveyed this month by Bloomberg said. Purchases will grow 2 percent this year, the first gain since 2007 and up from a December estimate of 1.8 percent, according to the median forecast of 60 economists polled. The U.S. economy, the world’s largest, will expand 2.7 percent, the best performance in four years, the survey showed. Economists forecast consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy, will grow at a 2 percent annual rate in the current quarter and pick up to a 2.3 percent pace by the last three months of the year, the survey showed.
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#1. To: war (#0)
Recovery? Christ, I'd laugh at this insane assertion if it wasn't so serious.
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