USA • Initial jobless claims dropped from an upwardly revised 586K to a post-pandemic low of 547K in the week to April 17. Continued claims edged down, too, from 3,708K to 3,674K. Topping these up were the roughly 12.9 million people who received benefits in the week ended April 2 under two emergency programs: Pandemic [...]
USA • In March, housing starts rose 19.4% to a 15-year high of 1,739K (seasonally adjusted and annualized), exceeding by far the median economist forecast of 1,613K. Adding to the good news, the prior month’s result was revised up from 1,421K to 1,457K. The increase in March was driven by the multifamily category, where starts [...]
USA • The goods and services deficit widened US$3.3 billion to US$71.1 billion. Overall, trade activity was soft, with goods imports and exports sinking 3.5% (US$4.8 billion) and 0.9% (US$2.0 billion), respectively. In the service sector, exports sagged US$0.2 billion while imports rose US$0.3 billion. In light of many industry surveys reporting that widespread supply [...]
• Global supply chains have been strained for over a year due to disruptions and bottlenecks caused by the coronavirus, and this week's grounding of a massive container ship in the Egypt's Suez Canal has only added to the problem. As much as 12% of the world's seaborne trade has been halted by the accident, [...]
