New home sales have been in an uptrend for the past 15 months. That trend is slowing and has perhaps come to an end. In October, homes sold at a rate of 679,000 units per year or just above the long term average of 656,000 units. The median price continues to come down. Prices dropped just over 3% from September [...]
We have a lot to be thankful for here in the US of A. It is sometimes hard to remember that while being constantly bombarded by negative news, about the economy and the country more generally. I don't like to comment about politics - I have to watch my blood pressure these days - so I'll stick to economics and [...]
Chicago Fed Activities Index An expected drop in Oct versus strong Sept. We are near concerning levels which would be below -.5. Fuel Prices Continuing down. Existing Home Sales Sales are down again and inventory is up. This is all about affordability. Many home owners are locked into their home because of the large difference between their existing mortgage and [...]
"After a pause in September, the LEI resumed signaling recession in October." LEI signaling a shallow recession. The index is down 3.3% in the last 3 months and -.8% in October. I hate to compare cycles, but the machine does and there are certainly similarities. The similarities became apparent with the release of CPI last week. In June of 2006 [...]
Stocks, REITs, and bonds all rallied last week on the back of what was interpreted as good news on inflation. The CPI report was better than expected, the overall level flat from September to October. Core inflation, less food and energy, was also better than expected at up 0.2%. Producer prices, reported the day after CPI were even better, coming [...]
Industrial production continues to show negative growth. This was perhaps the most important release of a busy week. It was atleast the one that had the greatest effect on GDPNow (unfortunately to the downside). This month is much about the auto industry. There have been some headlines about Americans broadly shunning EV's and inventory building on parking lots. The reasoning [...]
There's been a 4-week upswing in claims with the current week having the largest number of additional claims. There are 31,000 more claims this week than a month ago. Another month like this and we'll be looking at the highest number of claims in the past 2 years. The absolute level of claims is not concerning, just noting the shift [...]
Housing starts and housing permits issued are settling in at their respective historic mean. GDPNow didn't budge on the release. Activity was higher in 2022 and has found a comfort level here in 2023. We have seen some build in inventories and some pricing pressure as activity has come down but not anything of concern. Disclaimer: This information [...]
Current conditions and activity were reported a bit better than October although activity still remains in negative territory. New orders ticked down in Nov versus Oct. The general trend is still positive, but we don't want to see further weakness below the quick and dirty trend line. Disclaimer: This information is presented for informational purposes only and does not [...]
Retail sales make up about a quarter of GDP, so an important monthly number. I saw a lot of headlines saying this was a disappointing number. But that isn't the case, the print was actually good. Sequentially, expectations were low for this print because September 2023 and October of 2022 were so strong. The sequential number was expected at -.3% [...]
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