April 2020

On a monthly basis, retail sales decreased 8.7 percent from February to March (seasonally adjusted), and sales were down 6.2 percent from March 2019. Retail spending is in a free fall — nosediving a record 8.7% last month — as more companies continue to furlough workers and stores, malls and restaurants remain shuttered across the […]

Brief  Publicly available tools help companies spot patterns in one country or region that will likely repeat elsewhere. At a Glance √  Copious data from search engines and ad platforms can help marketers navigate a wise course during and after the pandemic. √  Google Trends data showing demand for product categories in countries where the

Oil prices were down over the last week with WTI futures at $22.61 per barrel and Brent at $31.30 barrel. A year ago, WTI was at $64, and Brent was at $72, so oil prices are down about 60% year-over-year. Here is a graph from Gasbuddy.com for nationwide gasoline prices. Nationally, prices are at $1.83

These indicators are for travel and entertainment — some of the sectors that will probably recover very slowly, post COVID-19. Air Travel The TSA is providing daily travel numbers. This data shows the daily total traveler throughput (from TSA) for 2019 (Blue) and 2020 (Red). On April 11th there were 93,645 travelers compared to 2,059,142

The Cleveland Fed released the median CPI and the trimmed-mean CPI on 20200410: According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, the median Consumer Price Index rose 0.2% (2.5% annualized rate) in March. The 16% trimmed-mean Consumer Price Index also rose 0.2% (1.9% annualized rate) during the month. The median CPI and 16% trimmed-mean CPI

To begin, the expansion to the Panama Canal was completed in 2016, so some of the traffic that used the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach is probably now going through the canal. This might be impacting TEUs on the West Coast. Container traffic gives an idea about the volume of goods being exported