Last Week in the News (February 16, 2009)

The Commerce Department reported that retail sales rose 1% in January after falling for six straight months. Economists had expected a drop of 0.8%.

Wholesalers reduced their inventories by 1.4% in December. The decline was twice as much as forecasted and the steepest since recordkeeping began in January 1992. It also was the fourth straight monthly decline. Sales at the wholesale level fell 3.6% in December after a 7.3% decline in November.

The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that the trade deficit fell 4% to $39.9 billion in December, from $41.6 billion in November. It was the lowest level in nearly six years.

According to RealtyTrac foreclosure filings — which include default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 274,399 homes during the month of January 2009, a 10% decrease from the previous month but still up 18% from January 2008.

New applications for unemployment benefits fell by 8,000 to 623,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. However, the number of people continuing to claim jobless benefits rose to 4.81 million in the week ended January 31 from 4.78 million the prior week.

Upcoming on the economic calendar are reports on the housing market index on February 17, housing starts on February 18 and the index of leading economic indicators on February 19.