Market Mover Thursday: April PPI higher than expected..WalMart same store sales flat on US dollar….weekly jobless claims higher than expected, rate hits 4.9%…
PPI rose 0.4% on higher food prices for consumers…
WalMart reported flat sales….
Weekly jobless claims higher than expected…
CNBC, what a typo they have here :
..In a separate report, producer prices rose 0.3 percent, also more than expected and a sign that economy (I think they mean INFLATION! )remained a threat to the economy.
Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits increased 32,000 to a seasonally adjusted 637,000 in the week ended May 9, reversing an easing trend of the previous two weeks.
PPI:
…producer prices rose faster than expected in April, government data showed on Thursday, driven by a surge in food costs.
The Labor Department said the Producer Price Index climbed 0.3 percent after declining 1.2 percent in March. Food prices rose 1.5 percent in April, the biggest increase since January 2008. Food costs rose on a record jump in egg prices, along with soaring prices for vegetables and meat….
Unemployment rate also jumped:
..Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast new claims rising to 610,000.
The number of people staying on the benefit rolls after collecting an initial week of aid jumped 202,000 to a record high of 6.56 million in the week ended May 2, the latest week for which the data is available, from 6.36 million the previous week.
This was the 15th straight week that so-called continued claims touched a record high and lifted the insured unemployment rate to 4.9 percent, the highest since December 1982, from 4.8 percent the previous week….
Wal-Mart reported a flat quarterly profit Thursday as its low prices attracted shoppers amid a global economic slowdown, but the retailer’s results suffered from the stronger U.S. dollar. For the current quarter, the company forecast results roughly in line with Wall Street expectations as it faces tough comparisons with a year ago, when it got a boost from customers spending tax rebate cash in its stores…
Market Mover Tuesday: Retail Sales Fall Unexpectedly…PPI also drops…
It is unexpected b/c apparently economists still do not actually go into stores to get an idea of what is happening on the street…
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Sales of U.S. retailers fell in March, snapping two months of increases, a government report showed Tuesday, indicating the recession was far from hitting bottom as mounting unemployment depress consumer spending.
The Commerce Department said total retail sales dropped 1.1 percent after rising a revised 0.3 percent in February. March sales were weighed down by declining purchases for big-ticket items like motor vehicles and electronic goods.
But if you take out auto sales, retail STILL dropped .09%….
Excluding motor vehicles and parts, sales fell 0.9 percent in March, compared to a 1 percent gain the prior month.
PPI:
A separate report from the Labor Department showed U.S. producer prices fell in March and also recorded their largest year-over-year decline since 1950 as subdued demand makes it hard for producers to raise prices….
Compared with the same period last year, producer prices were 3.5 percent lower, the largest decline since a 3.9 percent fall in 1950, the department said.
IOW It ain’t over til it’s over, and it ain’t over…
Moderate in the Middle 