RHS News and Press, Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Consumer Staples From 03/23/21

One reason behind rising interest rate fears is that import prices continue to rise. Overall, import prices have risen 3% in the past 12 months, so inflationary pressures continue to build. Export prices rose 1.6% in February, following a 2.5% surge in January. In the past 12 months, ...

The U.S. has mobilized the largest COVID-19 vaccination rollout of any country in the world. For consumers, returning to the physical world doesn't seem to be based on state governments lifting restrictions, or their reassurances that there will be enough supply for all adults who wan...

Investor sentiment and behavior, whether retail or institutional, capture the market "mood"-is it optimistic or pessimistic? The three most commonly referenced confidence indicators are the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index, the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index...

Total industrial production declined by -2.2% in February, while manufacturing production declined -3.1%. Both of these were the first declines of any significance since last April. Nominal retail sales declined -3.0%. After adjusting by the CPI, real retail sales declined -3.4%. ...

While the global inflation picture remains fixed at firmly normal (as in, disinflationary), US retail sales by contrast have been highly abnormal. Overall IP was down 2.2% in February 2021 when compared to January, which represented a recession-like 4.2% lower level versus February 20...

Retail sales and food-services spending fell 3.0 percent in February pulling back from a record high in January. Core retail sales, which exclude motor vehicle dealers and gasoline retailers, posted a 3.3 percent drop for the month following a record high in January. Comparing the...

For US Treasury investors, the starting place for inflation today is tough-there's not enough inflation-adjusted yield to cushion the pain. Treasury inflation-protected securities and similar inflation-linked bonds globally will outperform comparable-maturity Treasury bonds if inflati...

Real Retail Sales report a sharp increase for January after a short correction following consumers stocking up for the COVID lockdowns. Gasoline prices, which have risen sharply from RBOB Gasoline $1.41/gal to $1.59/gal in January 2020, actually fell as part of the mix in this report,...

After 3 months of declines, we saw a huge upturn in retail sales in January. Before adjusting for inflation, retail sales jumped 5.3%. After adjusting for inflation, sales were up 5.0% to a new all-time high. This is very good news and adds to the evidence that once the pandemic i...

Headline sales came in at 5.3% month-over-month to one decimal and was well above the Investing.com forecast of 1.1%. Core sales (ex Autos) came in at 5.9% MoM. January headline and core sales were up and better than forecasts. For further details see: Retail Sales Up 5....