Econoday Economic Report: Redbook July 17, 2012

2012 Economic Calendar

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Redbook

Released On 7/17/2012 8:55:00 AM For wk7/14, 2012

	Prior	Actual
Store Sales Y/Y change	2.2 %	1.7 %

Highlights
Redbook, for the July 14 week, reports one of the very lowest rates of year-on-year sales growth this recovery, at plus 1.7 percent in a rate not seen since the Easter distortions of April last year. Month-on-month is also very weak, at minus 1.1 percent which points ahead to yet another weak government retail sales report. Redbook blames lack of demand for seasonal goods for the trouble, the result of hot weather in prior weeks that, then, drove consumers into stores.

Definition
A weekly measure of sales at chain stores, discounters, and department stores. It is a less consistent indicator of retail sales than the weekly ICSC index. It is also calculated differently than other indicators. For instance, figures for the first week of the month are compared with the average for the entire previous month. When two weeks are available, then these are compared with the average for the previous month, and so on. It might be more useful to compare year-over-year figures since these are indeed compared to the comparable week a year ago. This index is correlated with the general merchandise portion of retail sales covering only about 10 percent of total retail sales. Why Investors Care