Weakened Growth.

Initial Jobless Claims (week ended 2/7/2015)

– New Claims (seasonally adjusted) 304,000. Previous was 279,000
– New Claims (unadjusted) 323,672 an increase of 17,061 from previous
– 4-week Moving Average  289,750. Previous was 293,000.
 

Retail Sales (January 2015)
– Retail Sales month/month -0.8%. Previous was -0.9%
– Retail Sales less autos month/month  -0.9%. Previous was -0.9%
– Less Autos & Gas month/month 0.2%. Previous was +0.0%.

This is weak and indicative of slow GDP growth.

 
Business Inventories (December 2014)

– Inventories month/month +0.1%. Previous was +0.2%.

This is a GDP component indicating slower growth but this will affect 4thQ2014 not the present quarter.