Cars and Gas Drive Today’s Data
Mortgage Applications (week ended 3/13/2013)
– Purchase Index – Week/Week -3.0%
– Refinance Index – Week/Week -5.0%
– Composite Index -Week/Week -4.7%
Retail Sales (February 2013)
– Retail Sales – Month/Month 1.1%
– Retail Sales less autos – Month/Month 1.0%
– Less Autos & Gas – Month/Month 0.4%
The headline number looks fine but it was driven by a 5% increase in the price of gasoline. Looking inside Retail Sales we see an ever increasing percent happening online. Amazon continues to hurt the likes of Best Buy.
Import/Export Prices (February 2013)
– Export Prices – Month/Month 0.8%
– Export Prices – Year/Year 1.5%
– Import Prices – Month/Month 1.1%
– Import Prices – Year/Year -0.3%
The jump in import prices was entirely due to the price of crude oil.
Business Inventories (January 2013)
– Inventories – Month/Month 1.0%
Auto and auto parts output was +1.9%. Some of this increase in January autos and auto parts output became increased Retail Sales in February. As a subsegment of Retail Sales, autos and parts were +1.12% in February.