Econoday Economic Report: Redbook February 20, 2013

2013 Economic Calendar

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Redbook

Released On 2/20/2013 8:55:00 AM For wk2/16, 2013

	Prior	Actual
Store Sales Y/Y change	2.4 %	3.1 %

Highlights
Redbook and ICSC-Goldman are going in different directions with Redbook reporting rising same-store sales growth and ICSC-Goldman reporting slowing growth. Redbook's year-on-year sales rate is plus 3.1 percent for the February 16 week which is the highest rate since the Black Friday week and nearly double ICSC-Goldman's plus 1.8 percent rate released earlier this morning. Redbook reports strength in Valentine's Day sales and President Day promotions. Redbook sees a big 1.5 percent gain for February relative to January which points to outstanding strength for the government's ex-auto ex-gas reading of the retail sales report. In contrast, ICSC-Goldman trimmed back its estimate for February.

Definition
A weekly measure of sales at chain stores, discounters, and department stores. It is a less consistent indicator of retail sales than the weekly ICSC index. It is also calculated differently than other indicators. For instance, figures for the first week of the month are compared with the average for the entire previous month. When two weeks are available, then these are compared with the average for the previous month, and so on. It might be more useful to compare year-over-year figures since these are indeed compared to the comparable week a year ago. This index is correlated with the general merchandise portion of retail sales covering only about 10 percent of total retail sales. Why Investors Care