Jan. Retail Sales Rose 0.3%, Smallest Gain Since June

IBD's Capital Hill ^ | 2/15/2011 | Ed Carson

[Slyscribe]

Shoppers increased retail sales 0.3% last month, the seventh straight gain but the weakest since June. Ex autos, sales also rose 0.6%, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. Economists had expected a 0.5% overall gain and a 0.6% ex autos increase.

January’s modest gains came amid brutal winter storms in much of the country. Then again, some analysts had expected late December sales to boost shopping last month. December sales were revised down a touch to 0.5% rise. January reflected the third straight month of decelerating gains.

[Nachum]

The list, ping

Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list

http://www.nachumlist.com/

[lormand]

I have almost used all of my gift cards from Christmas.

[fhayek]

If I understand these numbers, they are saying that sales rose .3%, but ex-Auto sales they rose .6%. The expected numbers were .5% and .6% ex-auto (which we hit). Therefore, they are suggesting that auto sales are dragging down the overall sales numbers. And here I thought that Obama had saved the auto industry.

[proudpapa]

If it weren’t for inflation, this would have been a negative number.

[NorCoGOP]

YES We Caaannnnnn't

[DuncanWaring]

Also on the topic:

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=2413287

[mrsmith]

Yep, it’s the increase in prices.
http://www.census.gov/retail/marts/www/marts_current.pdf
Grocery stores increased 3.8%, less than the prices increased over the year- people can’t afford to even eat as much as before.
Vehicle sales, gas stations and online shopping the only areas that clearly came out ahead.

[proudpapa]

If it weren’t for inflation, this would have been a negative number.

[proudpapa]

I wonder how the Obama regime will spin the BLS inflation numbers for the month of January when they’re released on Thursday the 17th.

[mrsmith]

BLS leaves out ‘volatile’ fuel and food doesn’t it?

Inventories were reported up today and gold started climbing again.

I now think we’ve seen the tipping point from de- to in-flation, not just a bubble in commodity prices.

[proudpapa]

CPI does include fuel and food.

2009 was the first “negative” year since 1955. This was due in large part to the housing bubble bursting.

December of 2010 was the first month out of the last 24 where we saw significant movement upward. You can bet that with rising fuel & food prices January will be just as bad if not worse.

[GailA]

No one has done much shopping since the Christmas season is over. New summer stuff going up at Penny’s isn’t worth buying, cheap materials rough looking, cheaply made, which will not withstand much laundering.