The U.S. Census Bureau’s monthly advance retail sales report, released Tuesday, suggests that owning a restaurant is likely to be a sales-boosting endeavor in 2019. Okay, it didn’t really say that, but the report holds some interesting insights for the food and agribusiness industries (as well as restaurants). The first notable point in the report was that April’s total retail sales figure was up 3 percent versus the same period in 2018. The overall robust growth in retail sales suggests the backbone of the U.S. economy, consumer spending, is healthy and should support economic expansion.
One reason consumer spending should remain healthy going forward is that the labor market continues to tighten. The number of job ope...
Key Market Insights The broad market is locked in on this week’s Trump-Xi meeting in Beijing, but this is no longer just a trade summit. Increasingly, the meeting is becoming tied directly to Iran, energy security, and the growing global economic fallout from disruptions through the Strai...
