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Retail sales gains in January could boost growth

Redress

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Retail sales gains in January could boost growth - Yahoo! News

AP 1 pm est

A modestly better-than-expected report on retail sales for January could suggest stronger economic growth in coming months.

The 0.5 percent gain reported Friday by the Commerce Department exceeded the 0.3 percent increase economists had expected.

Strength came from a surge at general merchandise stores. These include big national chains such as those owned by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Excluding autos, sales posted a 0.6 percent reading, also better than expected.

The story goes on the make the point that this is a very minor bit of good news, and that there are lots of reasons to think it is far too early to say "recovery", but it is a bit of good news. It is certainly better than the news could be.
 
Retail sales gains in January could boost growth - Yahoo! News



The story goes on the make the point that this is a very minor bit of good news, and that there are lots of reasons to think it is far too early to say "recovery", but it is a bit of good news. It is certainly better than the news could be.

As a manager of an HVAC company, I can tell you first hand that the only reason we are selling any systems right now is because of the Obama stimulus, and people looking for that $1,500.00 tax break. Companies are also selling energy efficient appliances and other items that are giving customers tax breaks. This makes the recovery only superficial. Once the stimulus ends, on January 1st, 2011, this will all go away. If the economy is still mired down, then either the government will have to keep propping it up, or sales will once again slide down to realisitic figures. At any rate, IMHO, based on my own experience, this "bit of good news" is somewhat misleading.
 
Retail sales gains in January could boost growth - Yahoo! News

The story goes on the make the point that this is a very minor bit of good news, and that there are lots of reasons to think it is far too early to say "recovery", but it is a bit of good news. It is certainly better than the news could be.

I saw on the news that all the snow was keeping people from shopping and numbers were down. But someone added that the purchases were just being postponed.
 
As a manager of an HVAC company, I can tell you first hand that the only reason we are selling any systems right now is because of the Obama stimulus, and people looking for that $1,500.00 tax break. Companies are also selling energy efficient appliances and other items that are giving customers tax breaks. This makes the recovery only superficial. Once the stimulus ends, on January 1st, 2011, this will all go away. If the economy is still mired down, then either the government will have to keep propping it up, or sales will once again slide down to realisitic figures. At any rate, IMHO, based on my own experience, this "bit of good news" is somewhat misleading.

That is actually covered in the article linked.
 
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