The following statistics were released today on the state of the US economy:

In weekly retail sales, Redbook year-year chain store sales growth came in at a 1.8% rate, the 4th time in five weeks it’s been below 2%. ICSC-Goldman showed a -0.3% sales decrease for the week, but an improved year-on-year rate of 3.6%.

Business inventories in June rose 0.1%, outpacing sales which fell 1.1%. The mismatch for June raised the stock-to-sales ratio to 1.29, the highest in 2 1/2 years. This inventory accumulation will hold down GDP, and slow sales will hold down business confidence.

The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index fell -0.2 points in July to 91.2, after two months of improvement.

The Producer Price Index in July jumped 0.3% percent, following a 0.1% increase in June. The core PPI rose 0.4%, following June’s 0.2% gain. On a year-over-year basis, the PPI is up 0.5%, but the core PPI is up 2.5%.

Retail sales in July jumped 0.8 %, following a weak -0.2% drop in May and a weaker -0.5% decrease in June. Retail sales ex-autos also rose 0.8%, while ex-auto and ex-gas sales rose 0.9%.

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Dale Franks
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