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Friday, the 13th (July) turned out to be a lucky day for those on Wall Street as the DJIA, after jumping 283.86 points yesterday, picked up another 45.52 points today to set a new milestone closing at 13,907.25.
This milestone was hit the same day retail sales fell an unexpected 0.9% for June. The retail sales report is prepared once a month by the U.S. Census Bureau, and their summary follows:
The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for June, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $373.9 billion, a decrease of 0.9 percent (±0.7%) from the previous month, but 3.8 percent (±0.7%) above June 2006.
Unfortunately, what the summary doesn’t tell is what needs to be looked at – the fact that nearly all the advance percentages are down for the month of June 2007.
- Motor vehicles and parts sales – down 2.9%
- Auto and other motor veh. dealers - down 3.1%
- Furniture and home furn. stores – down 3.0%
- Electronics and appliance stores - down 1.4%
- Building material and garden equip – down 2.3%
- Even gasoline stations were down 1.1% (any chance you’re using less gas?)
- Clothing and accessories stores - down 1.4%
- Department stores (ex. L.D.) - down 1.0%
- Miscellaneous store retailers - down 1.6%
The only two NAICS codes that indicated a significant increase during the month of June were Health and personal care stores (had any prescriptions filled lately?) - up 1.2% and, nonstore retailers up 1.2%
