Retail Sales

February 14, 2025 Retail sales fell 0.9% in January after having risen 0.7% in December and  0.7% in November.   In the past year retail sales have risen 4.1%.  The markets had expected no change in January.  It appears that the wildfires in California that raged from...

Producer Price Index

February 13, 2025 The Producer Price Index for final demand  includes producer prices for goods, as well as prices for construction, services, government purchases, and exports and covers over 75% of domestic production. Producer prices for final demand rose 0.4% in...

Consumer Price Index

February 12, 2025 The CPI rose 0.5% in January after rising 0.4% in December, and 0.3% in November. The year-over-year increase is 3.0%.  We now expect the overall CPI to increase 3.4% in 2025.  The January increase was larger-than-expected.  Part of the sizeable...

Small Business Optimism

February 11, 2025 . Small business optimism declined 2.3 points in January to 102.8 after rising 3.4 points in December and having jumped 8.0 points in November.  The level is finally above the 40-year average so-called breakeven point for this series which is 98.0....

Confused? Join the Group

February 7, 2025 This past week we learned about wild swings in employment the past three months combined with a steady decline in the workweek which does not seem to make a lot of sense. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said that the wildfires in California and the...