On a monthly basis, retail sales increased 0.5% from December to January (seasonally adjusted), and sales were up 4.7% from January 2009 (easy comparison). Click on graph for larger image in new window. This graph shows retail sales since 1992. … Read More

On a monthly basis, retail sales decreased 0.3% from November to December (seasonally adjusted), and sales were up 5.4% from December 2008 (easy comparison). Click on graph for larger image in new window. This graph shows retail sales since 1992. … Read More

Press Release: RealtyTrac® year-end report shows record 2.8 million U.S. Properties with foreclosure filings in 2009 (ht Ann) RealtyTrac® … today released its Year-End 2009 Foreclosure Market Report™, which shows a total of 3,957,643 foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled … Read More

From the WaPo: For retailers, snow would pile on Retailers can stop accusing the economy of holding back holiday sales. Now they can blame it on the weather. The mighty blizzard expected to descend on the Northeast today comes on … Read More

The Senate passed another extension of unemployment benefits and Cobra insurance premiums this morning as part of the Defense spending bill. This bill had already passed the House. In addition to the defense spending, the bill contained an extension of … Read More

On a monthly basis, retail sales increased 1.3% from October to November (seasonally adjusted), and sales are up 1.9% from November 2008. Click on graph for larger image in new window. This graph shows retail sales since 1992. This is … Read More

November retail sales will be released tomorrow morning, but December is apparently off to a slow start … From the WSJ: Sales Lull Has Retailers Worried The first week of December, typically a lackluster time in the wake of Black … Read More

If there were 143,276 cumulative HAMP trial modifications in June - and the maximum length of a trial was extended to five months - how come there were only 31,382 permanent mods and 30,650 disqualified modifications by the end of … Read More

From the NRF: Black Friday Verdict: As Expected, Number of Shoppers Up, Average Spending Down … a National Retail Federation survey conducted over the weekend confirms the expected: more people spent less. According to NRF’s Black Friday shopping survey, conducted … Read More

Note: I’ll have a Black Friday retail post in a few hours … From Bloomberg: U.A.E. Central Bank Stands Behind Lenders, Adds Funds The United Arab Emirates’ central bank said it “stands behind” the country’s local and foreign banks, which … Read More