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November 13, 2014 A third quarter same store sales decline of 1% at Dillard’s wasn’t enough to dissuade CEO William Dillard, II from declaring the company is very well positioned for the holidays. Total merchandise sales also declined 1% to $1.42 billion while net incomes increased to $55.2 million, or $1.30 a share, compared to... Read more »

November 13, 2014 Walmart’s same store sales turned positive during the third quarter, ending a two year drought, prompting the company to forecast a U.S. comp increase of as much as 1% during the fourth quarter. Third quarter same store sales at U.S. stores increased 0.5% and were aided by inflation and the impact of... Read more »

November 12, 2014 Procrastinators and bargain hunters alike are taking their time getting started with their holiday shopping bonanza, possibly to take advantage of deeper discounts over Thanksgiving weekend and late in the season.  According to NRF’s Holiday Consumer Spending Survey, 45.6 percent of holiday shoppers say they haven’t started shopping yet, relatively flat with... Read more »

November 12, 2014 World economic growth, which stands at 3.2 percent for 2014, will accelerate modestly to 3.4 percent in 2015, The Conference Board reported today. The Conference Board Global Economic Outlook provides output growth projections for 2015, 2015-2019, and 2020-2025, including 11 major regions and over 50 mature and emerging economies.  Overall, annual global... Read more »

November 12, 2014 Macy’s third quarter sales were lower than expected but the company still managed to grow profits by 30% and expressed optimism regarding the fourth quarter. The department store retailer said same store sales declined 0.7% while total sales declined 1.3% to slightly less than $6.2 billion during the third quarter ended November... Read more »

November 6, 2014 Builder confidence in the single-family housing market for the third quarter is up year over year, according to the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) 55+ Housing Market Index (HMI) released today.  Compared to the third quarter of 2013, the single-family index jumped nine points to a level of 59, which is... Read more »

November 10, 2014 The Conference Board Employment Trends Index (ETI) increased in October.  The index now stands at 123.09, up from 121.91 (an upward revision) in September.  This represents a 7.7 percent gain in the ETI compared to a year ago. “The Employment Trends Index continues to increase rapidly, with all eight components improving in October,”... Read more »

November 7, 2014 The labor market remains resiliently strong, as evidenced by the gain of 214,000 new jobs created in October, close to the average monthly change of 220,000 in the past year.  The combination of strong job growth and only moderate GDP growth suggests that the trend of weak improvement in labor productivity is... Read more »

November 7, 2014 According to the National Retail Federation, retail industry employment increased by 22,100 jobs in October.  Employment gains were broad and consistent in most retail categories, especially in general merchandise stores, which saw an increase of 11,900 jobs.  NRF figures do not include automobile dealerships, gasoline stations or restaurants. “Today’s solid employment report is... Read more »