Marketwatch 666

Regular monthly reports that were released last week included the April Consumer Price Index , the April Producer Price Index and the April Import-Export Price Index from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Retail Sales report for April and the Manufacturing and Trade, Inventories and Sales report for March (pdf), both from the Census Bureau, the April report on Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization from the Fed, and the Existing Home Sales Report for April from the National Association of Realtors…. This week also saw the first regional Fed manufacturing survey for May: the Empire State Manufacturing Survey from the New York Fed , which covers all of New York state, a NYC suburban county in Connecticut, northern New Jersey, and Puerto Rico, reported their headline general business conditions index rose to +19.6 in May from +11.0 in April, its highest level in more than four years, which would indicate that a solid majority of Second District manufacturers now see improv...

Major monthly reports released last week included the March Producer Price Index from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the March report on Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization from the Fed, and the Existing Home Sales Report for March from the National Association of Realtors (NAR)…. The week also saw the release of the first two regional Fed manufacturing surveys for April: the Empire State Manufacturing Survey from the New York Fed, which covers all of New York state, one NYC suburban county in Connecticut, Puerto Rico and northern New Jersey, reported their headline general business conditions index rose from –0.2 in March to +11.0 in April, which would indicate that a moderate plurality of First District manufacturers now see improvement in various facets of their business, after they were evenly split between those who reported improving conditions and those who saw deteriorating conditions in March…meanwhile, the Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Survey , covering most ...

Major economic reports released last week included the Producer Price Index for February from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the February report on Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization from the Fed, and the January report on new home sales , the Full Report on Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories and Orders for January , and the January report on Wholesale Trade, Sales and Inventories , all from the Census Bureau…. This week also saw the release of the first two regional Fed manufacturing surveys for March: the Empire State Manufacturing Survey from the New York Fed, which covers all of New York state, one NYC suburban county in Connecticut, Puerto Rico and northern New Jersey, reported their headline general business conditions index fell from +7.1 in February to –0.2 in March, with the near zero reading meaning that that region’s manufacturers were virtually evenly split between those who reported improving conditions and those who saw deteriorating conditions in March...

This week’s key reports were the advance estimate of 4th quarter GDP and the December report on Personal Income and Spending , both from the Bureau of Economic Analysis; other widely watched reports released this week included the Commerce Department’s report on our International Trade for December ; the December report on Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization from the Fed, and the advance report on durable goods for December , the New Residential Construction report for November and December (pdf), and the November and December reports on new home sales , with all of those 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 slipped from +7.7 in January to +7.1 in February, still its fo...