Empire Manufacturing and Retails Sales Show Mixed Report

The Empire Manufacturing index fell to -6.16 in October. This was worse than expected as Dow Jones was calling for -4.0. While it was the third negative report in a row, it is an improvement from the -10.4 report from the prior month’s reading.

Today’s report from the Commerce Department is from September and we have already seen enough guidance from retailers on same-store sales that the number here should not be a major surprise. That being said, the headline retail sales were up by 1.1%, and even the ex-autos report was up by 1.1%. Dow Jones was looking for gains of 0.7% on the headline number. The seasonally adjusted figure came to $412.94 billion.

Today’s reports are not really having much impact on the markets. Until the election and until any changes around the newness of QE3 are seen, it is probably a no-brainer that it takes much larger surprises to move the markets for the time being. S&P futures are up 7 points and are following the lead of European stocks higher as of now.

JON C. OGG