Economic Radar: Retail Sales, Consumer Sentiment, Etc.

Recap of this week’s U.S. economic events:

The Treasury statement showed that the 12 month rolling budget deficit decreased to $680 billion in August.
Consumers’ credit card use declined again while student and auto loans continue to grow.
Participation in the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, increased by 125k people in June.
Business sales outpaced inventories in July. The inventory-to-sales ratio decreased to 1.28.
Retail sales increased 0.2% in August.
The producer price index was up 1.4% year over year in August.
In the preliminary reading for September, consumer sentiment tanked to 76.8.
Initial jobless claims for the week declined to 292k and the insured unemployment rate decreased to 2.2%, but expect an upward revisions next week.
The M2 money supply increased 0.11% week over week.
Consumer staples led store sales higher, but department stores showed weakness.