Market Insights

First rule: plan ahead. Does your approach to buying markets and trade shows jibe with our readers’ approach?

A report released Tuesday by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates said that import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to increase 2.6% in October over the same month last year and should reach its highest level of the year as retailers stock up for the holiday season.

Housing starts data released Wednesday morning shows a lull in housing construction, as the pace of residential construction showed a less-than-1% gain in August. 

The official seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of housing starts in August was 891,000, up 0.9% above the downwardly revised July estimate of 883,000. Total housing starts are up 19.0% compared to the August 2012 rate.

Analysts had expected total starts to comfortably exceed the 900,000 mark.

Eddie Lampert still plans to win as a “member-centric integrated retailer.”

The absence of housing initiatives was just one criticism we heard from readers regarding President Obama's $47 billion jobs plan:

New and existing-home supply has struggled to improve so far this fall, says an industry economist.

The California State Water Resources Control Board is proposing new regulations on stormwater runoff and containment that the Lumber Association of California & Nevada (LACN) has called "controversial, costly and unfair."

According to Ken Dunham, LACN executive director, the regulations affect lumberyards and any business with a physical outside yard. LACN Government Affairs Chair and LACN Second VP Augie Venezia presented his views and those of the LACN at an Aug. 17 workshop organized by the Water Resources Control Board.

A survey of a nationally representative sample of 1,000 consumers conducted by San Francisco-based research firm MarketTools suggests that their next home improvement project will most likely take place in some room other than the kitchen or bathroom.


Almost a third of future projects were described as “other room” in the study, conducted July 8 to 10 using MarketTools ZoomPanel of opted-in consumers.