This week’s biggest day of economic data brought a deluge of new information ahead of today’s opening bell, with a final look at Q2 Gross Domestic Product (GDP), new Initial Jobless Claims, the latest Trade Balance and Wholesale Inventory for August. Overall, we’re looking at pretty good news, even though market futures have yet to spring into the green prior to the market open today. We’ll see if this changes as the news gets more fully digested.
The third and final read on Q2 GDP, which had previously eked out a positive 3.0%, finished up another tenth of a point to 3.1%. This points to the healthy economy the Fed and other arbiters of econ data had been looking for signs of for awhile now. Interestingly, we’ve managed to reach 3% in a quarter without issuing new tax cuts; will this development actually wind up being a hindrance to those in Congress currently working to push through a sweeping new tax code? We shall see if opponents to a new tax bill use this 3% benchmark as evidence that a tax cut isn’t needed.
Both Personal Consumption Spending at 3.3% and the Price Index at +1% were in-line with expectations. Personal consumption rose 0.9% quarter over quarter, indicating real consumer confidence. Corporate profits only went up 0.1%, but this follows the previous read of 0.8%. All in all, this speaks to a robust U.S. economy; today’s GDP is the highest read since the 3.2% registered in Q1 2015.
Initial Jobless Claims billowed up again another 12,000 to 272K from a slightly revised 260K. We have now been above the multi-year 225-250K range since Hurricanes Harvey and Irma first made landfall in the U.S. These weekly results, it may be assumed, have at least something to do with the storms’ disruptions, and as such, they may be looked at as temporary conditions, so long as recovery efforts in Texas and Florida continue on-pace. Continuing claims actually went down a bit to 1.934 million, which is another sign of labor market strength throughout the country.
The Trade Deficit posted a better-than-expected read this morning — $62.9 billion was an improvement from the expected $65 billion. It also represents a drop from the $63.9 billion reported last go-around.
Wholesale Inventory for last month of 1% more than doubled expectations. Retail investment of 0.7% looks to have been the strongest player here; at first blush, however, it isn’t quite clear whether these represent retail sales (which would be very good) or inventory build (which would be less good). This also is a strong month-over-month improvement of a -0.1% read for July.
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Economic Data Deluge
This week’s biggest day of economic data brought a deluge of new information ahead of today’s opening bell, with a final look at Q2 Gross Domestic Product (GDP), new Initial Jobless Claims, the latest Trade Balance and Wholesale Inventory for August. Overall, we’re looking at pretty good news, even though market futures have yet to spring into the green prior to the market open today. We’ll see if this changes as the news gets more fully digested.
The third and final read on Q2 GDP, which had previously eked out a positive 3.0%, finished up another tenth of a point to 3.1%. This points to the healthy economy the Fed and other arbiters of econ data had been looking for signs of for awhile now. Interestingly, we’ve managed to reach 3% in a quarter without issuing new tax cuts; will this development actually wind up being a hindrance to those in Congress currently working to push through a sweeping new tax code? We shall see if opponents to a new tax bill use this 3% benchmark as evidence that a tax cut isn’t needed.
Both Personal Consumption Spending at 3.3% and the Price Index at +1% were in-line with expectations. Personal consumption rose 0.9% quarter over quarter, indicating real consumer confidence. Corporate profits only went up 0.1%, but this follows the previous read of 0.8%. All in all, this speaks to a robust U.S. economy; today’s GDP is the highest read since the 3.2% registered in Q1 2015.
Initial Jobless Claims billowed up again another 12,000 to 272K from a slightly revised 260K. We have now been above the multi-year 225-250K range since Hurricanes Harvey and Irma first made landfall in the U.S. These weekly results, it may be assumed, have at least something to do with the storms’ disruptions, and as such, they may be looked at as temporary conditions, so long as recovery efforts in Texas and Florida continue on-pace. Continuing claims actually went down a bit to 1.934 million, which is another sign of labor market strength throughout the country.
The Trade Deficit posted a better-than-expected read this morning — $62.9 billion was an improvement from the expected $65 billion. It also represents a drop from the $63.9 billion reported last go-around.
Wholesale Inventory for last month of 1% more than doubled expectations. Retail investment of 0.7% looks to have been the strongest player here; at first blush, however, it isn’t quite clear whether these represent retail sales (which would be very good) or inventory build (which would be less good). This also is a strong month-over-month improvement of a -0.1% read for July.