Thursday, February 14, 2008

Retail sales?

"Retail sales unexpectedly climbed in January, given a boost by demand for cars and gasoline in a positive sign for the economy."
You know I really don't understand this - demand for cars and gasoline? How about gas costs more, and people are maybe trading in their gas guzzlers for more economical models. I would love to see finer grains in this report. It sounds like a lot of crap to me.

Aha - as I am writing this and check the link it appears that the wording on this article has changed:
"Part of the gain, however, stemmed from higher gasoline prices. Retail-sales data aren't adjusted for inflation.

In addition, economists were puzzled by a 0.6% increase in auto sales, since other industry reports show auto sales declined"
I don't know who could take this as good news...

1 Comment:

Anthony said...

I see Ritholtz was thinking the same way I was -