The Economic Week In Review

* Retail Sales - down .2%, less autos it was up .5% which was unexpected. Business Inventories- up .1% reflecting that fact that most businesses are trying to keep inventories low during the slow down. (Tuesday)

* Consumer Price Index - up .2% which was much better than expected, energy came in almost flat which is a mystery to me! (Wednesday)

* Jobless Claims -371,000 reflecting poor conditions in the labor arena.

* Industrial Production,-down .7%, worse than expected and again pointing to more widespread weakness in manufacturing.

* Philidelphia Fed Survey-continues to show weakness in manufacturing and came in down 15.6%.

* Empire State Manufacturing Survey-down 3.2%

* Housing Market Index-came in at 19 with the component for buyer traffic being very weak in May.(Thursday)

* Housing Starts- at 1.032M reflected an increase of 8.2% in May.

* Consumer Sentiment fell from 62.6 in April to 59.5 in May, lowest level in 28 years. Not surprising as inflation continues to be a top concern for consumers and rising gasoline and food prices are hurting wallets everywhere.(Friday)

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