Retail Sales Data:
According to the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs, chain-store sales for the week ended Oct. 16 rose 1.7% from the year-earlier period, representing the slowest rate in at least four weeks. Sales fell .7% on a week-over-week basis.
New Home Starts Data:
The U.S. Commerce Department reported that new construction of U.S. houses increased for the third straight month in September. New home starts rose .3% in September to a seasonally adjusted 610,000 annualized units, which is well above the 578,000 anticipated by economists from MarketWatch. Starts of new single-family homes rose by 4.4% to 452,000, but starts of large apartment units slipped 9.7% to 158,000. Building permits, considered a leading indicator of housing construction, dropped 5.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 539,000. This is the lowest level of permits since April 2009, while the number of new construction homes is the highest level of starts since April.
