 etail and food services sales for October dipped to $411.6 billion, a decrease of 0.3 percent from the previous month, according to last week's data from the Census Bureau. This was still 3.8 percent higher than October 2011, and total sales for the August through October 2012 period were up 4.7 percent from the same period a year ago.
October's retail trade sales dipped 0.3 percent from September, but were 3.8 percent over last year. Some other notable performers: gasoline stations sales were up 1.4 percent over September and 7.7 percent from October 2011; food and beverage stores were up 0.8 percent over September and 3.9 percent over October 2011; and nonstore retailers were down 1.8 percent from September and 7.2 percent over October 2011.
In related news, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.1 percent in October on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last week. Over the last 12 months, prices on the All Items index increased 2.2 percent.
Notably, the shelter index increased 0.3 percent, its largest increase since March 2008, and accounted for more than half of the All items Increase. The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.2 percent, as the rise in the shelter index and increases in the indexes for apparel and airline fare more than offset declines in the indexes for used cars and trucks, new vehicles, and recreation.
The food index increased 0.2 percent in October with the index for food at home rising 0.3 percent, its largest increase since September 2011. The energy index, which had risen sharply in August and September, declined slightly in October.
Meanwhile, the Producer Price Index for finished goods declined 0.2 percent in October, the Bureau also reported last week. This continued an upward trend, but was down in comparison to September's 1.1 percent increase and August's 1.7 percent gain. At the earlier stages of processing, prices received by manufacturers of intermediate goods edged down 0.1 percent in October, and the crude goods index moved up 0.9 percent.
Also in manufacturing, industrial production declined 0.4 percent in October after having increased 0.2 percent in September, the Federal Reserve reported last week. The Federal Reserve noted in its report that Hurricane Sandy held down production in the Northeast enough to have reduced the rate of change in total output by nearly 1 percentage point. The biggest hits from the storm included output reductions for utilities, chemicals, food, transportation equipment, and computers and electronic products.
In October, the index for manufacturing decreased 0.9 percent, but excluding storm-related effects, factory output was roughly unchanged from September. The output of utilities edged down 0.1 percent in October, and production at mines advanced 1.5 percent. At 96.6 percent of its 2007 average, total industrial production in October was 1.7 percent above October 2011. Capacity utilization for total industry decreased 0.4 percentage point to 77.8 percent, a rate 2.5 percentage points below its long-run (1972--2011) average.
In employment news, initial jobless claims filed during the week ending Nov. 10 hit 439,000, a significant increase of 78,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 361,000, the Employment and Training Administration reported. It's important to note that many experts cautioned that the spike was most likely due to a doubling up of claims data in states such as New York that were impacted by Hurricane Sandy and its ensuring power outages, which caused data to go unreported during the week before last. The four-week moving average was 383,750, an increase of 11,750 from the previous week's revised average of 372,000.
The total number of insured unemployed workers during the week ending Nov. 3 was 3,334,000, an increase of 171,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 3,163,000, the Administration also reported (but, again, these figures could be skewed by hurricane-related reporting problems. The four-week moving average was 3,254,500, an increase of 17,750 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,236,750.
This week we can expect:
- Monday — October existing home sales from the National Association of Realtors.
- Tuesday — October housing starts and building permits from the Census Bureau.
- Wednesday — Initial jobless claims for last week from the Employment and Training Administration; Consumer sentiment index for November from the University of Michigan; October leading economic indicators from The Conference Board.
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