A. Currently, analysts are forecasting a 15.7 percent year-over-year increase in profits this quarter.
The national median price rose less than 1 percent from June 2005, the smallest year-over-year increase in more than 11 years.
The index is expected to rise a bit to a 3 percent year-over-year increase.
The year-over-year increase had been 8.3 percent in March.
That was an even smaller year-over-year increase than in September, when the terrorist attacks kept many shoppers at home.
Not since July 1989 had the figures shown a year-over-year increase.
That was the smallest year-over-year increase in more than 11 years.
A year ago, benefit costs showed a year-over-year increase of 5.4 percent.
The year-over-year increase was only 1.4 percent, the lowest level in more than a decade.
RIM is also doing very well, with a 60 percent year-over-year increase in shipments.
