US The March employment report marks another solid month of gains. The shortfall in employment growth was mostly due to swings in construction and retail payrolls. Construction payrolls added 65,000 jobs in February, which was driven by unseasonably mild weather, particularly in California. March saw the return of winter weather in the Northeast and a [...]
US The Fed raised the upper bound limit one quarter of a percentage point to 1.75% on Wednesday in a widely expected move, despite less than positive data in Q1. Business fixed investment and household spending moderated from Q4, the policy statement acknowledged, but an upgrade to labor market conditions encouraged the FOMC. The decision [...]
US Retail sales edged down 0.1% in February, with broad-based declines in a number of categories. Excluding auto sales, total sales rose 0.2%. The closely watched control group, which feeds into the calculation for GDP, rose a modest 0.1% for the month following a flat reading in January. Much like the business investment sector, a [...]
US Employment growth strengthened in February with businesses adding 313,000 new jobs. That pushed the three-month average up to 242,000 after a net of 54,000 jobs also revised job gains in December and January higher. Strength was widespread across industries, including gains of 50,000 in retail, 28,000 in financial services and 61,000 in construction, which [...]
US US factory sector data released this week showed another divergence between the “hard” and “soft” data. On the hard data front, private equipment spending looks to be cooling after increasing at a double-digit pace in the third and fourth quarters of 2017. Durable goods orders fell 3.7% in January, with much of the decline [...]
US US existing home sales disappointed again in January, falling 3.2% to a 5.38 million unit pace with sales declining in all four regions of the country. The sluggish pace of existing home sales is linked to the fact that supply remains historically low. The inventory of existing homes on the market rose in January [...]
US Headline US CPI increased 0.5% in January, and registered a 2.1% year-on-year increase. While energy prices played a large role in boosting the CPI, core CPI, excluding food and energy prices, rose 0.3%, the largest gain since last January. While the year-ago gain is unchanged from December, core CPI has increased at a 2.9% [...]
US The ISM non-manufacturing index posted a solid rebound in January after service sector activity took a breather in November and December. The headline rose to hit a new cycle high of 59.9. The improvement in new orders was the main driver of the recovery, but the breadth of positive responses across industries was also [...]
US The ISM manufacturing survey ticked down 0.2 points to 59.1, but new orders remained exceptionally strong and the backlog of unfilled orders increased. While the index declined slightly, it does not signal a slowing in manufacturing activity or the economy since the ISM survey is a diffusion index and measures the breadth of strength [...]
US Fourth quarter US GDP rose 2.6% on an annualised basis following the third quarter’s 3.2% rate of growth. An important measure of core demand, real final sales to private domestic purchasers, climbed to 4.6% on an annualised basis. One of the most impressive aspects of the GDP report was consumer spending, which rose 3.8% [...]
