However, the increase is the smallest in consumer spending for three months, and marks a slowdown from February's 0.7% jump and January's 0.3% rise.
We noted, however, the sustained level of trading interest in Beazer's January '08 option call series, with the buying of some 5, 965 lots midweek in the January '08 call at the 30.0 strike, as well as healthy interest in the 25.0 January straddle.
Retail sales growth slowed to 0.1 percent in January, from a 0.5 percent increase in December, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.
The Labor Department said that the core producer price index for wholesale prices on goods excluding food and energy rose 0.5% in January, up from a 0.2% increase in December.
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Then on February 3rd the government reported that non-farm employment jumped 243, 000 in January, or 0.2%, from December, the best in nine months, led by manufacturers, who boosted payrolls by 50, 000.
U.S. small business employment increased 0.11% in January, while overall revenue dropped 0.4% in December, according to new data from Intuit Inc.
Euro-zone industrial production for February rose 0.4% on the month, besting expectations of a 0.1% increase, although January's decline was revised to 0.6% from a previous estimate of 0.4%.
Markit's preliminary reading on U.S. manufacturing rose to 56.1 in January from 54.0 the previous month, the strongest report since March 2011.
It reached 62.0 in January from an upwardly revised 58.7 in December.
The Conference Board's index declined from 78.8 in January to 64.0 in February, a nine-year low that may herald weaker growth in consumer spending.
Among the "Social Networking and Forums" category, however, Twitter came in at 23rd for the week ending 17 January, garnering just 0.24% of the site visits in the category.
The struggling consumer electronics retailer this morning said sales for the 9 weeks ended January 5 were down 0.4%, with domestic sales down 1.2% and international sales up 2.2%.
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And we learned that February may not have been any better, since the Conference Board reported the bottom has dropped out of consumer confidence, its Consumer Confidence Index plunging from 56.5 in January to 46.0 in February. (The norm for the index is 100, based on its level in 1985).
The Labor Department also reported Thursday that producer prices jumped 0.8% during January, well ahead of Wall Street's expectations of 0.3%.
The Gini index, which measures inequality between the social classes, went from a pre-tax level of 0.402 when Carter took the helm in January 1977, to a slightly worse 0.406, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
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The Conference Board says its index of leading indicators rose 0.2 percent in January to 94.1, the second straight increase after a gain of 0.5 percent in December.
This measure leapt from 2.4% in January (and 2.0% before that in December) to 2.8%!
Durable Goods Orders fell an unexpected 4.0% in January, after rising 3.2% in December.
Last month, after January's 1.0% rise in retail sales, television pundits said seasonal factors distorted the data.
Unique user figures for January 2008 show 5.0 million visitors for MySpace and 4.1 million visitors for Bebo.
Unemployment declined from 9.4 percent in December to 9.0 percent in January.
Energy as a whole registered its first increase in six months, up by 1.7%, while gas prices rose 6.0% in January, after declining 19.3% in December.
Meantime, fresh economic data from China was downbeat, as weekend figures showed the inflation rate rose to 3.2% in February from 2.0% in January, on an annualized basis.
That news, coupled with a slightly hotter inflation reading--the Producer Price Index rose 1.4% in January, above the anticipated 0.8%--weighed on shares as the Street got a soft open.
Notable results, such as January's 2-0 home win against Leeds, have been few and far between, and from late November until the middle of March they collected just two wins from 18 games.
Even as the US unemployment rate ticked down t o a recent low of 9.0% in January 2011, much of that drop from 9.8% in November 2010 came because Americans gave up looking for jobs and 13.9 million people are out of work, double the number before the recession started.
In the U.S., mixed in with the still mostly positive economic reports in the headlines have been reports that Durable Goods Orders unexpectedly fell 4.0% in January after rising 3.2% in December, factory orders unexpectedly fell in January, as did construction spending, while the ISM Mfg Index unexpectedly declined in February.
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Year-over-year January prices dropped by 1.0%, less than the 2.4% fall forecast by Wall Street.
Its reading of 0.58 in January, barely changed since October, suggests growth is slightly above its trend rate.
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