Empire Manufacturing and Retails Sales Show Mixed Report

Monday morning brought on two different economic reports, each with different aspects of the economy. The New York Fed released the Empire Manufacturing Index for October and the Commerce Department released the September retail sales data.

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