The Federal Reserve released the minutes from its most recent Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) monetary policy meeting on June 22-23, which showed policymakers continued to anticipate a moderate recovery in economic activity through 2011. Details from Bloomberg...
Advance retail sales for June fell 0.5%, compared to the forecast of economists that called for a decrease of 0.3%, but May’s 1.2% drop was revised to a 1.1% decline.
The larger-than-anticipated decline in the headline rate of retail sales was largely impacted by a 2.3% drop in vehicle and auto parts sales.
Business inventories rose 0.1% month over month in May, just shy of the 0.2% increase that economists had expected, and April’s 0.4% increase was unrevised. Sales dropped 0.9%, and the inventory-to-sales ratio inched back up to 1.24 from 1.23 months in April.
The Import Price Index dropped 1.3% month-over-month for June, compared to the expectation of economists, which called for the index to decline by 0.4%. Year-over-year, import prices are higher by 4.5%, versus the 5.3% forecast of economists.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 4 points (0.0%) to close at 10,367, the S&P 500 Index was flat at 1,095, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 8 points (0.3%) to 2,250. Crude oil fell $0.11 to $77.04 per barrel, while the Bloomberg gold spot price declined $2.95 to $1,209.40 per ounce.
Magnificent Seven Update
