US retail sales predicted to have fallen – New York Report
RETAIL sales figures for January are likely to be the highlight for the economic week in the US.
Economists expect the sales to have dipped by around 0.5 per cent over January, following a fall of 0.9 per cent in December.
A preliminary reading on US consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan is due on Friday, along with preliminary inflation expectations.
Consumer sentiment is expected to remain close to an 11-year high, as an improving job market and cheaper petrol impressed consumers.
On the corporate calendar, companies including Hasbro and Loews are due to give figures today, while soft drink giant Coca-Cola will report tomorrow, along with Molson Coors Brewing.
On Wednesday Cisco Systems, PepsiCo, Time Warner and TripAdvisor are due to update the market and on Thursday American International Group, Avon, CBS, Kellogg, Kraft Foods Group, McGraw Hill Financial and Nielsen will all report.
Healthy data, in Friday’s job report is likely to be good news for the US’s smallest stocks this week. With nearly all of their revenue coming from the United States, the companies in the Russell 2000 should be the most obvious beneficiaries of a growing US economy.
Nonfarm payrolls increased 257,000 last month, the Labor Department said, well above forecasts. The dollar index rose slightly more than one per cent on the news.