Posts Tagged ‘US Economy’

Retail Sales Rise Unexpectedly

Posted by Amita Kalra on March 12th, 2010

Adding on to the happy numbers released yesterday by RealtyTrac Inc, reports released by the Commerce Department, claim that the retail sales posted a gain of 0.3% last month. December’s result was adjusted downwards to 0.1% growth from 0.5%.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast a 0.3% decrease. Infact, prior to the results, economists painted a sorry picture for the results. Ellen Zentner from BTMU said  “Blame Toyota, but mostly blame the weather because we expect a -3.3% decline in motor vehicle sales in February and that’s going to be the biggest drag on overall retail sales, but weather also depressed other areas of spending as snowstorms and all-around nasty weather hit the country over and over again throughout the month.” However, excluding the car sector, all other retail sales rose 0.8%.

(more…)

  • Share/Bookmark
Posted in North America Tags: , , , , No Comments »

US Records Record GDP Growth Of 5.7% (Q-4)

Posted by Amita Kalra on January 29th, 2010

Releasing the first in a series of three reports on the fourth quarter performance of 2009, the Commerce Department today triggered a mixed bag of sentiments, generally positive, to its numbers. It has reported that, in the fourth quarter, the US economy grew by 5.7% annual pace, the fastest in six years. These came in as a pleasant surprise to analysts who expected an average annual growth of 4.7% annual pace. These results perhaps built on the Q3 results, which reported 2.2% annual growth rate. However, they could not negate the discouraging declines in the first (6.7%) and second quarter (0.7%), so that overall, for 2009, the economy shrank at a depressing 2.4% rate, the worst annual performance since 1946.

The good news is that this expansion is said to have little correlation with the federal spending and has been attributed to the increase in consumer activity, and exports sector. The results are indicative of the creation of new demand for goods and services especially in the technology sector. The equipment and software sector itself posted a growth of 13% in the first quarter of last year.

(more…)

  • Share/Bookmark
Posted in North America Tags: , , , 1 Comment »

Housing Numbers Present Grim Situation

Posted by Amita Kalra on January 25th, 2010

The National Association Of Realtors today released their Existing Home Sales Report for December, simultaneously ripping apart the curtain of hope for a near term economic recovery. Existing home sales tumbled to 5.45 million annual rate, an abysmal fall of 16.8%, the highest, since the last 40 years. The prices registered a small annual increase (.01%) for single family homes, the first, in the past 38 months.

2539334956 87cef7e457 Housing Numbers Present Grim Situation

Housing crisis

Analysts explain, that buyers who rushed to meet the original November deadline to take advantage of a $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers caused a surge in sales earlier in the year. In fact, sales went up 28 percent in the three months to November. Congress extended the tax credit until April 30 and expanded it to more potential buyers, raising hopes  that sales will pick up again during the spring buying season. “The market is going through a period of swings driven by the tax credit,” NAR economist Lawrence Yun said. “We’ll likely have another surge in the spring as home buyers take advantage of the extended and expanded tax credit.” (more…)

  • Share/Bookmark
Posted in North America Tags: , , , , , , , , , No Comments »

  • Sponsers