Existing Home Sales
April 18, 2024 . Existing home sales declined 4.3% in March to 4,190 thousand after having jumped 9.5% in February Sales had been falling for almost two years as the combination of sharply higher mortgage rates and higher home prices took their toll But with the...
Initial Unemployment Claims
April 18, 2024 Initial unemployment claims were unchanged in the week ending April 13 at 212,000 after declining 10 thousand in the previous week. The economy is strong enough and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. No need to start laying off...
Housing Starts
April 16, 2024 Housing starts plunged by 14.7% in March to 1,321 thousand after having risen 12.7% in February after having dropped by 12.2% in January. Clearly, starts have been very volatile in recent months as cold and snowy weather has affected the outcome in...
Homebuilder Confidence
April 15, 2024 Homebuilder confidence was unchanged in April at 51 after having risen 3 points in March to 51 after climbing 4 points in February, 7 points in January, and 3 points in December. Thus, confidence has risen 17 points in the past five months as...
Retail Sales
April 15, 2024 Retail sales rose 0.7% in March after climbing 0.9% in February and declining 0.9% in January. It is true that the sales gains in February and March were robust and some economists are now suggesting that the next move by the Fed could be to raise...
Inflation Spooks the Markets – Fear Not!
April 12, 2024 The larger-than-expected increase in the consumer price index for March combined with a robust employment report for that month, has ignited a fear that the Fed will not ease nearly as much as hoped for in the second half of this year. A month ago...
GDP, Inflation, and Interest Rate Forecasts
April 11, 2024 The economy seems to have more positive momentum than anticipated. The economy continues to create jobs and wages keep growing and consumers continue to spend As a result, we expect GDP growth of about 2.5% in each of the first two quarters of...
Producer Price Index
April 11 2024 The Producer Price Index for final demand includes producer prices for goods, as well as prices for construction, services, government purchases, and exports and covers over 75% of domestic production. Producer prices for final demand roe 0.2% in...
Consumer Price Index
April 11 2924 The CPI rose 0.4% in both February and March after climbing 0.3% in January. The year-over-year increase is currently 3.5%. We expect the CPI to increase 3.5% in 2024. The March increase of 0.4% was higher than the 0.3% increase that had been...
Small Business Optimism
April 10, 2024 . Small business optimism fell 0.9 point in March to 88.5 after declining 1.1 points in February. That is the lowest level for this series since December 2012 which makes the current level even lower than the low point in the March/April 2020...
Follow Me