Thursday, August 13, 2009

Retail sales dip unexpectedly, jobless claims rise

  • Retail sales disappointed in July and the number of newly laid-off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits rose unexpectedly last week.
  • Gasoline stations, department stores, electronics outlets and furniture stores all reported declines.
  • Excluding autos, sales fell 0.6 percent, worse than the 0.1 percent rise economists had forecast. ]
  • excluding both auto and gas purchases, retail sales fell 0.4 percent -- the fifth straight monthly decline.
  • Gas station sales plunged 2.1 percent in July, due more to falling pump prices than weak demand.
  • Department store sales fell 1.6 percent and the broader category of general merchandise stores, which includes big chains such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp., posted a decline of 0.8 percent.
  • Foreclosure filings rose 32 percent from the same month last year, RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday. More than 360,000 households, or one in every 355 homes, received a foreclosure-related notice. That's the highest monthly level since the foreclosure-listing firm began publishing the data more than four years ago.
And this Administration says we are coming out of the recession ??????

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