Economy Watch: Sales, Mortgage, Gas

ICSC Retail Sales Data
The International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs reported its chain-store sales index for the week ending on July 30, 2011 posted a loss of 0.3%, with summer clearances continuing to dominate sales.

Shoppertrak Retail Sales Data
For the week ended July 30, 2011, ShopperTrak's National Retail Sales Estimate fell 0.5% to $93.869 billion from the week before of $94.354 billion, and was up a strong 4.1% from the same period last year. Back-to-School took a back seat to family vacations, but sales are expected to grow over the next several weeks and then fall toward the end of the month. Overall forecasts indicate that Back-to-School 2011 season will realize a gain of 3.8% over Back-to-School 2010.

Mortgage Rates Increase
Bankrate.com reported that the average conforming 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose to 4.74% from last week's 4.68%, according to its weekly national survey ending July 27, 2011. It also reported that the average 15-year fixed mortgage rate rose to 3.83% from 3.82% last week.

Gas Prices Up
The Energy Department announced that for week ending August 1, 2011, the average price of US gasoline rose to $3.711 a gallon from $3.699 per gallon week earlier.

Diesel prices rose to $3.95 from $3.92 last week.