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Showing posts from September, 2024

August’s retail sales, industrial production, new housing construction and existing home sales; July’s business inventories

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Widely watched economic reports released ​l​ast week included the Retail Sales Report for August and the Business Sales and Inventories report for July , both from the Census bureau, the August Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization report from the Fed, the August report on New Residential Construction , also from the Census bureau, and the Existing Home Sales Report for August from the National Association of Realtors…in addition, on Friday the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Report for August , a report which breaks down the two employment surveys from the monthly national jobs report by state and by region….while the text of that report provides a useful summary of this data, the serious statistics 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 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Ric...

August’s consumer and producer prices, July’s wholesale sales

Major reports released ​last week included the August Consumer Price Index , the August Producer Price Index , and the August Import-Export Price Index , all from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Wholesale Trade, Sales and Inventories report for July , from the Census Bureau…this week also saw the Consumer Credit Report for July from the Fed, which indicated that overall consumer credit, a measure of non-real estate debt, expanded by a seasonally adjusted $25.5 billion in July, or at a 6.0% annual rate, as non-revolving credit expanded at a 4.8% rate to $3,734.4 billion, while revolving credit outstanding grew at a 9.4% rate to $1,359.3 billion… The major privately issued report released this week was the Mortgage Monitor for September , which now comes from the Mortgage Technology unit of ICE, and which indicated that 3.37% of all mortgages were delinquent in July, down from the 3.49% that were delinquent in June, but up from the 3.21% delinquency rate of July 2023, and that...

August jobs; July’s trade deficit, construction spending, factory inventories, and JOLTS, et al

Major reports released this past week included the Employment Situation Summary for August and the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report for July , both from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and three July reports that provide us with preliminarty input data to 3rd quarter GDP, and also suggest revisions to 2nd quarter GDP: the July report on our International Trade from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the July report on Construction Spending (pdf), and the Full Report on Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories and Orders for July , both from the Census Bureau… The week’s major privately issued reports included the ADP Employment Report for August ,  the light vehicle sales report for August from Wards Automotive , which estimated that vehicles sold at a 15.13 million annual rate in August, down from the 15.82 million annual sales rate reported in July, but up from the 15.04 million annual rate reported for August a year ago, and both of the widely followed p...

Q2 GDP revision; July’s income and outlays, and durable goods

The key economic reports that were released last week were the 2nd estimate of 2nd quarter GDP and the July report on Personal Income and Spending , both from the Bureau of Economic Analysis…the week also saw the release of the July advance report on durable goods from the Census Bureau, the Case-Shiller house price indexes for June from S&P Case-Shiller, who reported that their national home price index, based on relative April, May and June home sales prices, was 5.4% higher than their home price index based on home sales prices during the same three months of a year ago, and the Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) for July , a weighted composite index of 85 different economic metrics, which decreased to –0.34 in July from a revised –0.09 in June, which had previously been reported at +0.05…as a result, the 3 month average of the CFNAI remained at -0.06 in July, which, as a small negative number, would indicate national economic activity has been slightly below the his...