Tag Archive: U.S. Retail Sales

Retail sales are an aggregated measure of the sales of retail goods over a stated time period, typically based on a data sampling that is extrapolated to model an entire country. Measuring consumer demand for finished goods, retail sales help gauge the pulse of an economy and its projected path toward expansion or contraction. As a leading macroeconomic indicator, healthy retail sales figures typically elicit positive movements in equity markets.

Retail Sales Weren’t All That Bad, Meaning They Were The Worst

2017-06-23

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2017-06-23

Retail Sales All Weak
Taken in comparison to the last few years, today’s retail sales report wasn’t that bad. Total sales for May 2017, including autos, grew by 5.17% year-over-year (NSA). That was the highest growth rate since last February. The 6-month average is now just shy of 4%, the best since early 2015. It is clear the US economy has shrugged off the effects of last year’s downturn.

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Key Events In The Coming Busy Week: Fed, BOJ, BOE, SNB, US Inflation And Retail Sales

2017-06-13

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2017-06-13

Known Unknowns
After a tumultous week in the world of politics, with non-stop Trump drama in the US, a disastrous for Theresa May general election in the UK, and pro-establishment results in France and Italy, this is shaping up as another busy week ahead with multiple CB meetings, a full data calendar and even another important Eurogroup meeting for Greece.

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Simple (economic) Math

2017-06-02

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2017-06-02

Average Weekly Earnings Production And Nonsupervisory, January 2007 - May 2017
The essence of capitalism is not strictly capital. In the modern sense, the word capital has taken on other meanings, often where money is given as a substitute for it. When speaking about things like “hot money”, for instance, you wouldn’t normally correct someone referencing it in terms of “capital flows.” Someone that “commits capital” to a project is missing some words, for in the proper sense they are “committing funds to...

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Less Than Nothing

2017-05-25

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2017-05-25

Eurodollar Futures Dimensions, 2005 - 2007
As I so often write, we still talk about 2008 because we aren’t yet done with 2008. It doesn’t seem possible to be stuck in a time warp of such immense proportions, but such are the mistakes of the last decade carrying with them just these kinds of enormous costs.

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FX Daily, May 12: Markets Becalmed Ahead of US data and Weekend

2017-05-12

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2017-05-12

The foreign exchange market is becalmed, and the major currencies are little changed. The US dollar is mixed, but mostly a little lower. Sterling is the weakest of the majors, off 0.3%, near $1.2850, having been rebuffed by offers in front of $1.30 several times. It has not recovered from the quarterly inflation report and Carney's press conference.

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The Expanded Retail Sales Gap

2017-04-18

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2017-04-18

US Retail Sales Trade, Jan 1993 - 2017
Retail sales growth in February 2017 was going to be low by virtue of its comparison to February 2016 and the extra day in that month. The Census Bureau’s autoregressive models are supposed to normalize just these kinds of calendar irregularities so that we can make something close to apples to apples comparisons. The seasonally-adjusted estimate for February, however, was calculated to be less than the one for January 2017, therefore suggesting...

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FX Daily, April 14: Holiday Markets Remain on Edge

2017-04-14

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2017-04-14

The holiday-induced calm in the capital markets conceals a high degree of anxiety. The investment climate has been challenged by heightened geopolitical risk and unusual complaints about the US dollar's strength from the sitting US President. While sending an "armada" toward the Korean peninsula, the US ordered a missile strike against Syria in retaliation for the use of chemical weapons and dropped the largest bomb in the world on Afghanistan.

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FX Daily, February 15: Yellen Helps the Dollar Extend Streak

2017-02-15

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2017-02-15

The Dollar Index's ten-day rally was at risk yesterday, but Yellen's reiteration of the commitment to continue to lift rates gradually helped extend the streak to eleven sessions.This surpassed the streak around the election (November 7-November 18). With today's gains, it may draw closer to what appears to be the long streak, 14 sessions between April 30, 2012 and May 17.

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FX Daily, January 13: Corrective Forces Persist

2017-01-13

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2017-01-13

FX Performance, January 13 2017 Movers and Shakers
The Supreme Court Judgement on whether parliament will have to O.K the triggering of article 50 is ongoing and when the ruling is announced expect big swings on GBP/CHF. I think the likely outcome will be that parliament will get the vote, most broad sheet papers have indicated the majority of the judges are in favour of the parliamentary vote.

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Toward A New World Order, part III

2016-12-19

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2016-12-19

A new world order is coming of age and the transition is painful to accept for a Western middle class with a deep-seated sense of entitlement. We showed how the West feels threatened globally in Toward a New World Order and followed up explaining how this translate into domestic politics in Toward a New World Order Part II. We will now continue this series by showing how gross economic mismanagement have created the new political class that we...

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FX Daily, December 14: Markets Quietly Edge into FOMC Meeting

2016-12-14

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2016-12-14

FX Performance, December 14 2016 Movers and Shakers
The Pound is entering mid-December in the same fashion it begun the month after having a very strong November as well. After being buoyed by Donald Trump’s victory and the High Courts ruling that parliamentary approval is needed before invoking Article 50, the Pound has been boosted further after economic data has also impressed, with yesterday being a good example of this.

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FX Daily, November 15: Investors Catch Breath, Markets Consolidate

2016-11-15

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2016-11-15

FX Performance, November 15 2016 Movers and Shakers
After a dramatic run since the US election, the capital markets are consolidating today. It is a bit too restrained to such a Turn Around Tuesday is unfolding. The euro is struggling to sustain corrective upticks through $1.08, and after a pullback is, the greenback pushed back above the JPY108 level like a beach ball held under water.

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FX Daily, October 14: Firm Dollar Consolidating, Awaiting US Retail Sales

2016-10-14

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2016-10-14

FX Performance, October 14 2016 Movers and Shakers
The US dollar is firm against most of the major currencies, but within yesterday's ranges, which seems somewhat fitting amid the light new stream. The high-yielding Australian and New Zealand dollars are resisting the stronger greenback, while on the week the Aussie and the Canadian dollar are the only majors to gain.

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Retail Snails

2016-08-16

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2016-08-16

Second Half Recovery Dented by “Resurgent Consumer”. We normally don’t comment in real time on individual economic data releases. Generally we believe it makes more sense to occasionally look at a bigger picture overview, once at least some of the inevitable revisions have been made. The update we posted last week (“US Economy, Something is Not Right”) is an example.

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FX Daily, July 15: Sterling and Yen Remain Key Drivers in FX

2016-07-15

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2016-07-15

The US dollar is broadly mixed against the major currencies. The Swiss franc's 0.25% gain puts it at the top of the board, after sterling's earlier gains were largely unwound in late-morning turnover. The yen is the weakest major; extending its loss by 0.6%, to bring the weekly decline to more than 5%. The pre-referendum result high for the dollar was near JPY106.85. Today's high has been about JPY106.30. In emerging markets, we note that the...

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FX Daily, June 14: Capital Markets Remain at UK Referendum’s Mercy

2016-06-14

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2016-06-14

"The Swiss Franc was the strongest performer, EUR/CHF has fallen to 1.08 by 0.8%". A spate of opinion polls showing a tilt toward Brexit, and the leading UK newspaper urging the Leave vote on the front page, keep the global capital markets on edge. Equities are lower, though of note ahead of the MSCI decision first thing Wednesday in Asia, Chinese shares eked out a small gain.

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FX Daily, May 18: Greenback Recovers as Rate Support is Enhanced

2016-05-18

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2016-05-18

Apart from GBP, the US dollar is rising against all the major currencies today.  The Australian dollar is retracing a sufficient part of its recent gains to suggest that the current phase of the US dollar’s recovery is not over. Given that the Aussie topped out a week before the other major currencies, it is reasonable …

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Dollar’s Technical Tone Improves, but No Breakout (Yet)

2016-05-15

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2016-05-15

The US dollar continued the recovery begun May 3 and rose against most of the major currencies over the past week.  A nearly 3.5% rally in oil prices, the fifth weekly gain in the past six weeks (a $9.5 advance over the period), helped the Norwegian krone turn in a steady performance.  The Canadian dollar’s 0.2% … Continue...

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Key Dollar Developments Include Bottoming against the Dollar-Bloc

2016-05-07

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2016-05-07

The US dollar rose against all the major currencies last week. The importance of the price action does not lie with the magnitude or the breadth of the advance. Instead, the two takeaway technical observations are 1) the seemingly one-way market for euro and yen ended and 2) the dollar-bloc currencies appear to have put … Continue reading...

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Hillary Will be the Least of Your Worries – America has Economic Diarrhea

2016-04-28

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2016-04-28

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the official recession arbiter, the US economy is currently at its fourth longest expansion in history. By the sheer nature of a capitalistic society with its inherent cyclicality it is a ...

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