US DATA: For the week ending January 22, weekly retail sales
declined by 1.2 percent, according to the ICSC-Goldman Sachs Weekly
Chain Store Sales Index. However, the year-over-year pace improved from
the prior week, increasing by 2.8 percent. “Adverse weather in the East
once again curbed discretionary spending, negatively impacting sales,”
said Michael Niemira, ICSC director of research and chief economist.
“However, January is a low volume month for sales and although it is
shaping up to be softer than recent trends because of the impact of
weather on discretionary sales, there is little fundamental significance
to read into that weakness,” Niemira added. For January, given the
trends through the month, ICSC is lowering its expectation for the month
to a gain of about 2%–which is about 0.5 percent lower than the
expectation earlier in the month.