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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 »

November 6, 2014 Markets in 59 of the approximately 350 metro areas nationwide returned to or exceeded their last normal levels of economic and housing activity in the third quarter of 2014, according to the National Association of Home Builders/First American Leading Markets Index (LMI), released today. This represents a year-over-year net gain of seven... Read more »

November 5, 2014 Walgreens reported October sales of $6.8 billion, an increase of 6.9% from the comparable year-ago period. Prescriptions filled at comparable stores increased by 3.6% in October and increased 4.1% on a calendar day-shift adjusted basis, meeting analyst expectations.  “Script growth for the chain drug stores likely grew in the low-to-mid-single-digit range again... Read more »

November 5, 2014 Online labor demand continues on a slow growth trend in 2014 Most states and MSAs showed small gains in October Online advertised vacancies rose 11,700 to 5,083,600 in October, according to The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine (HWOL) Data Series, released today.  The September Supply/Demand rate stands at 1.83 unemployed for each... Read more »

November 4, 2014 Tailwinds from specialty pharmacy and increased generic utilization lifted CVS Health up on Tuesday, as the company posted net revenues of $35 billion, representing an increase of 9.7% for the three months ended September 30. “I’m very pleased with our strong results in the third quarter, which reflect better than expected revenue... Read more »

November 4, 2014 Sales continued to decline at Office Depot in the third quarter, but CEO Roland Smith said excellent execution allowed operating profits to more than double. Total company sales on a pro-forma basis to reflect the merger of Office Depot and Office Max declined 3% to $4.1 billion during the period ended September... Read more »