Marketwatch 666

Widely watched reports released during the past week included the Retail Sales report for May and its companion the Business Sales and Inventories report for April , both from the Census Bureau; the May report on Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization from the Fed, the May report on New Residential Construction from the Census Bureau and the May report on existing home sales from the National Association of Realtors (NAR)… This week also saw the release of the first two Fed regional manufacturing reports for June: 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 to –6.0 June, from –15.6 in May, indicating that a smaller plurality of that district’s manufacturers are experiencing a slowdown than were a month ago..…meanwhile, the Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Survey , covering most of Pennsylvania, s...

Major reports released during the past week included the May Consumer Price Index, the May Producer Price Index and the May Import-Export Price Index , all from the Bureau of Labor Statistics…in addition, we will also briefly review the the Wholesale Trade, Sales and Inventories report for April from the Census Bureau, which we neglected to do when it was released on Friday of last week… CPI unchanged in May as Lower Gasoline Prices Offset Higher Rent The consumer price index was unchanged in May, as higher prices for rent, medical care services, drugs, used vehicles, and food away from home were offset by lower prices for gasoline, clothing, new vehicles, airline fares, video services, furniture, and information technology commodities, including smartphones….the Consumer Price Index Summary from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated that the weighted average of seasonally adjusted prices of consumer goods and services was unchanged in May, after being 0.3% higher in April, 0...

Major economic releases this week included both of the major monthly employment reports: the Employment Situation Summary for May and the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) for April, both from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in addition to the Commerce Dept’s report on our International Trade in Goods and Services for April , the April report on Construction Spending (pdf), the Full Report on Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories and Orders for April , and the April report on Wholesale Trade, Sales and Inventories , with all of those from the Census Bureau.…in addition, late Friday the Fed released the Consumer Credit Report for April , which showed that overall consumer credit, a measure of non-real estate personal debt, expanded by a seasonally adjusted $6.4 billion, or at a 1.5% annual rate, as non-revolving credit expanded at a 2.2% rate to $3,714.7 billion while revolving credit outstanding shrunk at a 0.4% rate to $1,338.5 billion… Privately issued reports relea...

The key economic releases of the past week were the second estimate of 1st quarter GDP from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the April report on Personal Income and Spending , also from the BEA, a report which includes source data for more than 23% of 2nd quarter GDP….This week also saw the release of the widely watched March Case-Shiller Home Price Index from S&P Case-Shiller , an index which is computed from the relative average of January, February & March home sales prices as compared to home sales prices of the same homes when they sold in previous 3 month periods; the Case Shiller index indicated that home prices nationally for those 3 months averaged 6.5% higher than prices for the same homes that sold during the same 3 month period a year earlier, same as the year over year increase they reported for their February national index​, covering prices for December, January and February… In addition, the last two regional Fed manufacturing surveys for May were also rel...