Marketwatch 666

Oddly, there were no major government agency economic reports released during the past week, which usually only happens once a year, during Christmas week….hence, the only widely watched private report released during the week was the Existing Home Sales Report for January from the National Association of Realtors (NAR)…this week did see the release of the Chicago Fed’s National Activity Index (CFNAI) for January , a weighted composite index of 85 different economic metrics, which rose to +0.23 in January from +0.02 in December, which was revised from the –0.15 reported for December last month… after revisions, the 3 month average of the CFNAI rose to –0.02 in January from –0.14 in December, which, as a reading close to zero, indicates that national economic activity has been close to the historical trend over the recent months… Existing Home Sales Rose 3.1% in January; Median Sales Price Fell 7.6% from June The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that existing home sa...

Major reports released this week included the January Consumer Price Index , the January Producer Price Index and the January Import-Export Price Index , all from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Retail Sales Report for January and the Business Sales and Inventories Report for December from the Census Bureau, the January report on Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization from the Fed, and the January report on New Residential Construction from the Census Bureau… The week also saw the release of the first two regional Fed manufacturing surveys for February: the Empire State Manufacturing Survey from the New York Fed, which covers all of New York state, one county in Connecticut, Puerto Rico and northern New Jersey, reported their headline general business conditions index rose from -43.7 in January to -2.4 in February, meaning that the ongoing contraction of Second District manufacturing was much less widespread than a month earlier....meanwhile, the Philadelphia Fed Ma...