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Retail sales, industrial numbers, Starbucks


Starbucks’ Reserve Roastery in Chicago

Source: Starbucks

Here are the most important things to know about Friday before you hit the door.

1. Read on the American consumer

As retailers gear up for the all-important holiday shopping season, we’ll get a read on the state of the American consumer when the retail sales number for October is released at 8:30 a.m. on Friday. The consensus is for sales to rise 0.2%.

The Street is watching the number perhaps even more closely than usual after retail sales unexpectedly declined 0.3% in September, which was the first contraction in seven months.

The number, which measures spending in stores, at restaurants, and online, among other things, is important since consumer spending is one of the key drivers of the U.S. economy. It can also act as an indicator for the overall health of the economy since spending is sensitive to many factors including unemployment rates and gas prices.

On Thursday Walmart kicked off earnings from major retailers. The company beat top-line estimates, according to FactSet, although revenue did come up short.

Target, Best Buy, Home Depot, Lowe’s and Macy’s are among the retailers set to report next week.

2. Industrial production

At 9:15 a.m. we’ll get industrial production for October, which measures the output from manufacturing, mining, and utility companies. The street is expecting total production to slip 0.5%, weighed down in part by the United Auto Workers strike which ended in mid-October.

Output fell 0.4% in September, also hit by the strike, so this would be the second straight month of declines.

Manufacturing numbers for October will also be released at 9:15 a.m. According to the Federal Reserve, in the 12 months through September manufacturing production fell 0.9%. Disruptions and uncertainties from the US-China trade war, now in its sixteenth month, are among the things that have pressured production.

Workers manufacture steel reinforcement bars that are used in support structures like the Lincoln Tunnel

Stephanie Dhue | CNBC

Also on the docket is the Empire State Manufacturing Index, which is a closely followed gauge of output from the New York area, as well as import and export prices and business inventories.

Abroad, the focus will be on the Eurozone, where we’ll get October’s Consumer Price Index and trade balance readings. This comes after Germany — the bloc’s largest economy — just barely avoided the technical definition of a recession when it reported third quarter GDP of 0.1%. Two consecutive quarters of contraction signifies a recession, and in the second quarter GDP was -0.2%.

3. Starbucks’ colossal new store

The world’s largest Starbucks, on Chicago’s “magnificent mile,” will open its doors on Friday.

The new Reserve Roastery, which boasts 35,000 square feet of retail space spread across five floors, has three coffee bars, an artisanal bakery and cafe, and a cocktail bar. The centerpiece is a 56-foot tall steel cask full of pre-roasted coffee beans.

This is the company’s sixth Reserve Roastery. The other locations are Seattle, Shanghai, Milan, New York and Tokyo. In addition to being much larger than a traditional Starbucks store, the Reserve Roastery stores are also intended to provide a more upscale feel. A company spokesperson said that the typical customer spends three to four times more at a Reserve Roastery than a normal location, and they’ve been known to have upwards of 8,000 visitors per day.

Shares of the coffee giant have gained more than 30% this year, outperforming the S&P 500’s 23% return.

Major events (all times ET):

3:30 a.m. Hong Kong Q3 GDP

5 a. m. Eurozone CPI

5 a. m. Eurozone trade balance

8:30 a.m. US core retail sales

8:30 a.m. US export price index

8:30 a.m. US import price index

8:30 a.m. NY Empire state manufacturing

9:15 a.m. US industrial production

9:15 a.m. US manufacturing production

Major earnings (all times ET):

JD.com (before the bell)

JC Penney (before the bell)

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