· Advance estimates of retail and food services sales increased 0.5% in June, following a 0.8% increase in the previous month. Excluding autos, retail sales were up 0.4%.
· Total manufacturing and trade sales were up 1.4% in May, and inventories were up 0.4% in May.
· Total Industrial production increased 0.6% in June, following a 0.5% decrease in the previous month. The index of industrial production in June was 3.8% above its year-ago level. The rate of capacity utilization for total industry was 78.0%, 1.8 percentage points below its 1972-2017 average, but 1.8 percentage points above its level in June 2017.
· Housing starts decreased 13.1% in June, while building permits decreased 2.2%.