(5-Year Graph)
(click on image to enlarge)
Bottom Line: Johnson Redbook Weekly Retail Sales(Y-O-Y) jumped .9% this week versus a -.8% decline the prior week. This was the best showing for weekly retail sales since the week of Oct. 7th, 2008 and the first positive reading since the week of Nov. 4th, 2008. Moreover, this is a significant improvement from the -2.3% decline seen the week of Feb. 3rd. This is one of the better leading economic indicators, in my opinion. I still belive consumer spending will meaningfully improve over the coming months on higher stock prices, less fear, pent-up demand, better access to credit, a stabilizing job market and extremely low inflation. I expect overall US GDP growth to turn positive during 3Q.
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