Category: U.S. Economy
Update Economic USA Housing
Housing starts declined for the month by 2.6% to a 1.172 million units annual rate. While permits also slowed by 2.5% to 1.299 million unit annual rate. This may initially look to be a troubling market, but when examined on a longer term basis we see a different picture. On an annual basis starts are up 0.7% while permits are up 5.7%.
Update Economic USA Industrial Production
Industrial production continues to grow with a 1 percent increase over last month. Capacity utilization was up 0.6 percentage points to 76.7%. This economic measurement is gradually approaching the long-term average of 79.9%.
Update Economic USA CPI
With retail sales advancing for the year we would expect to see an increase in CPI over the next few months. At the moment, overall prices to the consumer are remaining tame, but have advanced by 2.2% which is higher than the Fed Reserve target level of 2.0%.
Update USA Retail Sales
Retail sales increased for the month and year-over-year. Sales increased by 0.4% for the month of April and 4.5% since this time last year. Online sales are increasing at a rapid rate of 10.7% from last year while department store sales fell 5.2% over the same period of time. If retails sales continue to increase at this rate it will be considered inflationary. This would make the Federal Reserve very happy.
Update USA Unemployment 1st Time Claims
Employment jobless claims for 1st time requests continue to fall. Recent jobless claims were down another 2,000 for the week ending 6 May. The rate is now at 236,000 which is well below the 300,000 unofficial benchmark. Additionally, the 4-week average remained nearly flat at 243,500 nearly the same as the previous week. Continuing claims were also down by 61,000 to 1.92 million for a previous 1.96 million.