daily mkt review Dec 12 2007

--market staged a late day recovery followed a release of strng retail sales that coincides with the biggest jump in wholesale price in 34 years --the Commerce Department said November retail sales increased by 1.2%, double economists' estimate for a 0.6% advance. The surprisingly strong gain suggests the economy might not be as weak as feared. --a large portion of sales are driven by higher energy prices --The producer price index for finished goods jumped 3.2% in November, the Labor Department said Thursday, the biggest one-month rise since August 1973. --The core PPI, which excludes food and energy, was up 0.4%, matching the biggest increase in one year. --The figures doubled Wall Street expectations of a 1.7% rise in the headline index and 0.2% rise in the core, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey. --U.S. business inventories slowed to a crawl in October, suggesting companies might have cut back on stockpiling and created a restraint on the economy in the final months of 2007. --Inventories increased by 0.1% to a seasonally adjusted $1.431 trillion, after rising in September an unrevised 0.4%, the Commerce Department said Thursday. Wall Street was looking for stockpiles to move 0.3% higher during October.