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1st quarter GDP; March income & outlays, durable goods, and new home sales

The key economic releases from the past week were the advance estimate of 1st quarter GDP and the concurrent March report on Personal Income and Spending , both from the Bureau of Economic Analysis; other widely watched releases included the March advance report on durable goods and the March report on new home sales , both from the Census bureau…also released this week was the Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) for March , a weighted composite index of 85 different economic metrics, which increased to +0.15 in March from +0.09 in February, after February’s index was revised from the +0.05 reported in last month’s report…however, the more often cited 3 month average of that index increased to –0.19 in March from -0.28 in February, which would indicate that national economic activity has been below the historical trend over recent months, as would any negative ​index value… This week also saw the release of two more regional Fed manufacturing surveys for April: the Kansas C
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March retail sales, industrial production, new home construction and existing home sales; February’s business inventories

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Major monthly reports released this past week included the Retail Sales report for March and the associated Business Sales and Inventories report for February , both from the Census Bureau, the March report on Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization from the Fed, the March report on New Residential Construction from the Census bureau, and the Existing Home Sales Report for March from the National Association of Realtors (NAR)….In addition, the week also saw the release of the Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Report for March from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a report which breaks down the two employment surveys from the monthly national jobs report by state and region …while the text of that report provides a useful summary of the state and regional data, the serious statistical aggregation can be found in the tables linked at the end of the report , where one can find the civilian labor force data and the change in payrolls by industry for each of the 50 s
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March consumer and producer prices, February’s wholesale inventories

Major monthly reports released this past week included the March Consumer Price Index , the March Producer Price Index , and the March Import-Export Price Index , all from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the February report on Wholesale Trade, Sales and Inventories from the Census Bureau….meanwhile, a report released by the Fed late Friday of last week that we neglected to note then was the Consumer Credit Report for February , which indicated that overall consumer credit, a measure of non-real estate debt, expanded by a seasonally adjusted $14.1 billion, or at a 3.4% annual rate, as non-revolving credit expanded at a 0.9% annual rate to $3,712.4 billion and revolving credit outstanding grew at a 10.7% rate to $1,338.7 billion… CPI Rose 0.4% in March on Higher Rent, Energy, and Insurance The consumer price index was 0.4% higher in March, as higher prices for rent, gasoline, utilities, car insurance, medical care services including health insurance, transportation services, c
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March jobs report; February’s trade deficit, construction spending, factory inventories, and JOLTS, et al

Major monthly economic reports released ​during the past week included the Employment Situation Summary for March and the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) for February, both from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Commerce Department report on our International Trade for February , and the February report on Construction Spending and the Full Report on Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories and Orders for February , both from the Census Bureau.. Privately issued reports released this week included the ADP Employment Report for March , wherein the payroll processor estimated that private payrolls increased by 184,000, the light vehicle sales report for March from Wards Automotive , which estimated that vehicles sold at a 15.49 million annual rate in March, down from the 15.81 million annual sales rate in February, but up from the 14.89 million annual sales rate reported for March a year earlier, and both of the widely followed purchasing manager’s survey from the Inst
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