Key Economic Headlines.

Key economic headlines for last week included a drop in retail sales, as well as the lingering impact of the federal shutdown, which took their toll on consumer confidence. Where retail sales were concerned, food services sales for September ticked down 0.1 percent from August to $425.9 billion, according to last week’s report from the Census Bureau. While down from the preceding month, September’s performance was still 3.2 percent higher than September 2012’s receipts. Car and truck sales were the primary influence on September’s retail performance. Auto sales dropped 2.2 percent in September, due to the fact that carmakers agreed to count their Labor Day weekend sales toward August, with car and car parts sales omitted from September’s retail tally, sales actually increased 0.4 percent for the month. Whiles sales ticked down, prices notched up. The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) grew by 0.2 percent in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last week. The energy index was a key mover, posting a 0.8 percent gain in September, while the food index was flat for the month. Just the same, September’s index for all items less food and energy only rose 0.1 percent for the month. Meanwhile, the Producer Price Index for finished goods skirted won 0.1 percent in September, the Bureau also reported last week. By contrast, the indexes for finished energy goods and for finished goods less foods and energy grew by 0.5 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively. That poor retail performance helped push down consumer’s assessment of the economy, with The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index posting a sharp drop to 71.2 in September, decreased sharply in October, down from 80.2 in September. (A baseline of 100 was set in 1995.) The Present Situation Index, which describes how consumers assess the current economic situation, dropped to 70.7 from 73.5. The Expectations Index, which describes how consumers expect the economy to fare in the near feature, plunged to 71.5 from 84.7 last month. Looking at the job market, consumers saying jobs were “plentiful” was virtually unchanged at 11.3 percent in October from 11.4 percent in September, while those saying jobs are “hard to get” grew to 35.8 percent from 33.6 percent. The Conference Board noted that the government shutdown and debt-ceiling crisis put a large dent in consumers’ expectations. It added that comparable drops in confidence took place during the payroll tax hike earlier this year, the fiscal cliff discussions in late 2012, and the 1995 federal shutdown. In employment news, first-time claims for unemployment insurance filed during the week ending Oct. 26 dropped to 340,000, a decline of 10,000 claims from the preceding week’s total of 350,000, the Employment and Training Administration reported last week. The four-week moving average was 356,250, a gain of 8,000 people from the prior week's average of 348,250. The total number of unemployed Americans covered by insurance during the week ending Oct. 19 grew to 2,881,000, an increase of 31,000 from the previous week's revised level of 2,850,000, the Administration also reported. The four-week moving average declined to 2,878,750, a drop of 10,000 from the preceding week's revised average of 2,888,750. This week, we the federal reporting agencies will continue to play catch-up in their post-shutdown release of economic releases: Monday — August and September factory orders from the Census Bureau. Wednesday — September leading economic indicators from The Conference Board. Thursday — Initial jobless claims for the week ending Nov. 2 from the Employment and Training Administration; Advanced third quarter GDP from the Bureau of Economic Analysis; Sept. consumer credit from the Federal Reserve. Friday — October payrolls, unemployment, hourly earnings and workweek from the Bureau of Labor Statistics; September personal income and spending from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.