Industrial Production

February 14, 2025 Industrial production for January rose 0.5% after having  jumped 1.0% in December after having declined 0.1 in November.  As indicated below, the manufacturing sector declined slightly as car production fell sharply.  The January increase was ...

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....