Guessed way off on Retail sales... Fell 3.7%
Auto fell harder than expected.
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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Retail sales posted a record drop in November as automakers began cutting back on steep discount promotions that sent sales soaring to record highs in October.
The Commerce Department said Thursday retail sales fell 3.7 percent in November to a seasonally adjusted $293.6 billion, the biggest decline for any month on record, after soaring a revised 6.4 percent in October. That's well below the 3.1 percent drop expected by analysts polled by Briefing.com.
Excluding automobile sales, retail sales fell 0.5 percent in November, after a 1 percent increase in October. Sales of autos and car parts sank 11.9 percent after dealers drove record sales in October with zero-percent financing deals, which they began to scale back by the end of November.
Separately, the government reported the Producer Price Index fell 0.6 percent in November, more than the 0.4 percent drop analysts had expected.
Additionally, the Labor Department said first-time jobless claims fell last week to 394,000 from a revised 480,000 the previous week. That's far below the 465,000 claims for unemployment benefits analysts anticipated, according to Briefing.com. |
