Tag Archives: oil
Consumers Show Resilience in February
Consumer Shows Resilience in February Retail sales rose 1.1% in February, after being revised up in January. This gives credence to some of the recent strength in the broader stock indices and the importance to most households of rising housing prices. The increases in home prices have boosted household wealth and allowed consumers to spend [...]
Trade Data Will Push Q4 into the Black
The U.S. trade deficit narrowed dramatically to $38.5 billion in December from $48.6 billion in November. The improvement was on both sides of the ledger, with exports picking up and imports slowing rapidly. Most of the increase in exports was in industrial supplies and materials including petroleum. Capital equipment and vehicles were still weak. This [...]
Trade Deficit Widens on Vehicle & Parts Imports
The U.S. trade deficit widened to a much-larger-than-expected $48.7 billion in November, as Superstorm Sandy victims replaced their damaged vehicles at a record pace. We are also seeing some high-end German vehicle producers stock their lots with more test-drive vehicles to unload inventories building in Europe. Exports also increased, but at a much slower pace. [...]
Production Gains Still Tepid
Industrial production rose 0.4% in September, providing some offset to the 1.4% loss we saw in August. Hurricane Isaac and the idling of production along the Gulf of Mexico shaved 0.3% from production in August. Gains were uneven with mining, utilities and (thankfully) construction leading; consumer goods (mostly vehicles) flatlined after declining sharply in August. [...]
PPI Jumps on Energy Costs: Other Prices Tepid
The Producer Price Index (PPI) jumped 1.1% in October almost entirely because of an increase in energy prices. Gasoline prices jumped 9.8%; that is bad news for the holiday season, which opens with Halloween in just a few weeks. It is important to note that increases in gasoline prices were extremely uneven across the country. [...]
Retail Sales and CPI Rise on Energy Prices
Retail sales increased 0.9% on a sharp increase in gasoline and vehicle sales (up 5.5% and 1.3%, respectively). Retail sales excluding vehicle and gasoline station sales rose a much more tepid 0.1% pace for the month. The weakest sector was electronics, which shouldn’t be a surprise; we have seen few gains in this category, with [...]
Trade Deficit Treads Water as Global Growth Slows
The trade deficit widened ever so slightly to $42 billion in July, up from $41.9 billion in June. Both exports and imports slowed in response to weakening demand. The drop in exports was broad-based and included losses in industrial supplies and materials, motor vehicles and consumer goods. There was an increase in exports of foods, [...]
Trade Deficit Widens on Record Imports and Exports
The trade deficit widened in March to $51.8 billion, up from $45.4 billion in February, as record exports were not enough to offset record imports. Going forward, however, exports are expected to slow, particularly to Europe and China. Indeed, preliminary trade data for April from China released earlier this morning were not encouraging. Separately, import [...]
CPI up on Gas Prices; Industrial Production Weak
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) jumped 0.4% in February, its fastest pace since spring of 2011; 80% of that increase may be attributed to a rise in energy prices. The core CPI rose a more modest 0.1% on services inflation, which is particularly important in assessing overall inflation trends because medical costs are included; this [...]
Better than Consensus: PPI, Jobless Claims
Producer prices rose by 0.4% in February, driven by higher energy prices. Most of the increase is accounted for by a 4.3% jump in the price of gasoline and more expensive heating oil – and this taking into account the unseasonably warm winter. On an annual basis, producer prices rose by 3.3 percent, the smallest [...]
Bloomberg asks Diane Swonk to explain Fed concern over unemployment
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