Retails and foods services sales slightly rose again in January 2012 compared with December 2011’s sales, and were also above the sales at January 2011.
The U.S. Department of Commerce issued its monthly report on the change in the U.S. retail and food sales during January 2012.
This report adjusts for seasonal variances and holidays but doesn’t control for price changes. In January, the U.S. retail and food sales reached $401.4 billion, which is 0.4% above the sales in December and 5.8% above January 2011. The gasoline stations sales were 7.4% higher in January 2012 than a year earlier and also 1.4% higher than in December 2011. Total sales of gasoline in January 2012 reached $40.991 billion (not adjusted for seasonality) – an increase of 7.3% from the parallel time in 2011. This shows a growth rate in the U.S demand for retail and consequently for energy commodities.
The major energy commodities prices are currently trading slightly up; the major exchange rates such as the Euro US dollar is also increasing in the forex exchange rate market.
Current Nymex crude oil price, short term futures (March 2012 delivery) is traded up by 0.86% to $101.61 per barrel as of 06:34*.
Current Dated Brent spot oil price increases by $0.62/b to $118.43 / barrel as of 06:43*.
Euro to US dollar exchange rate is currently traded up to 1.3178, a 0.34% increase as of 10:27*.
Current gold price, short term futures (March 2012 delivery) is traded at $1,728.9 per t oz. a $11.2 increase as of 10:10*.
(* GMT)
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