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Retail sales kept up a long streak of year-over-year gains in October even though the rate of growth continued to slow, National Retail Federation chief economist Jack Kleinhenz said in response to the U.S. Census Bureau’s release of monthly retail sales data today. “Fourth-quarter consumer spending stepped off on a more moderate pace, as expected,” Kleinhenz said. “The staying power of the American consumer has been the story of 2023, but financial conditions have tightened appreciably in recent months, curbing the purchasing power fueled by job and wage gains. Nonetheless, continued consumer resilience is still expected for the holiday season.” Read More

The Home Depot reported sales of $37.7 billion for Q3 2023, a decrease of 3.0% from Q3 2022. Comparable sales for Q3 2023 decreased 3.1%, and comparable sales in the U.S. decreased 3.5%. Read More

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) was unchanged in October on a seasonally adjusted basis, after increasing 0.4% in September, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Read More

Goldman Sachs Research expects the global economy to outperform expectations in 2024-just as it did in 2023. Read More

Like most sectors of our economy, the construction industry is suffering from a shortage of workers. The U.S. Department of Labor reports that there are over 350,000 unfilled construction positions at present, and since the unemployment rate for construction workers has been below four percent for well over a year, it is difficult to see where these workers will come from. Read More

Consumer sentiment declined 5.3% to 60.4 in early November, according to preliminary results from the University of Michigan Survey of Consumers. Read More

Rising mortgage rates, elevated construction costs and limited existing inventory helped push housing affordability in the third quarter of 2023 to its lowest level in more than a decade. Read More

In the first nine months of 2023, total US imports of ceramic tile were 141.6 million square meters, a decline of 10.1% from the same period in 2022 when imports were 157.5 million square meters, reports Grosser Consulting. Read More

The construction industry added 23,000 jobs in October as unemployment rates for the sector hovered near the all-time low for the month, according to an analysis of new government data the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials said the construction industry would likely have hired even more workers to keep pace with strong demand for construction. Read More

Floor & Décor reported net sales of $1.1 billion in Q3 2023, up 0.9% from $1.1 billion in Q3 2022. Read More