Marketwatch 666

With several of the major month end reports already released last week , the only widely watched reports released this week were the advance report on durable goods for November and the new residential sales report for November , both from the Census Bureau….This week also saw the Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) for November , a weighted composite index of 85 different economic metrics, which increased to –0.12 in November from –0.50 in October, which was revised down from the –0.40 reading reported for October last month…that left the 3 month average of the CFNAI at -0.31 in November, down from -0.27 in October, which, as a negative number, would indicate that national economic activity had averaged below the historical trend over those three Autumn months… in addition, this week also saw the results from another regional Fed manufacturing survey for December: the Richmond Fed Survey of Manufacturing Activity , covering an area that includes Virginia, Maryland, the Caroli...

As is usual in advance of the holidays, a number of the reports that are normally released during the last week of the month were accelerated into this past week…that meant that this week saw the 3rd estimate of 3rd quarter GDP and the November report on Personal Income and Spending , both from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, in addition to the the Retail Sales report for November and the Business Sales and Inventories report for October , both from the Census Bureau, and the November report on Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization from the Fed, as well as the November report on New Residential Construction , also from the Census bureau, and the Existing Home Sales Report for November from the National Association of Realtors….in addition, on Friday the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Summary for November, a report which breaks down the two employment surveys from the monthly national jobs report by state and region…...

Major reports released this week included the November Consumer Price Index , the November Producer Price Index , and the November Import-Export Price Index , all from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the October report on Wholesale Trade, Sales and Inventories from the Census Bureau….in a report from late last week we missed, the Fed released the Consumer Credit Report for October , which indicated that overall consumer credit, a measure of non-real estate debt, expanded by a seasonally adjusted $19.2 billion, or at a 4.5% annual rate, as non-revolving credit outstanding expanded at a 1.1% rate to $3,739.1 billion, while revolving credit outstanding grew at a 13.9% rate to $1,373.5 billion…. The major private report released this week was the Mortgage Monitor for December , which now comes from the Mortgage Technology unit of ICE, and which indicated that 3.45% of all mortgages were delinquent in October, down from 3.48% in September, but up from the 3.26% delinquency rate of Oc...

Major economic reports released this week included the Employment Situation Summary for November and the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) for October , both from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Commerce Department’s report on our International Trade for October , and the October report on Construction Spending (pdf), and the Full Report on Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories and Orders for October , both from the Census Bureau…. The week’s major privately issued reports reports included the ADP Employment Report for November , the light vehicle sales report for November from Wards Automotive , which estimated that such vehicles sold at a 16.50 million annual rate in November, up from the 16.04 million annual rate in October, and up from the 15.32 million annual rate in November a year ago, and both of the widely watched purchasing manager’s surveys from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM): the November Manufacturing Report On Business reported that their ...