2008-09-05 USER


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US Economic Releases


Unemployment Rate (Aug)

Survey 5.7%
Actual 6.1%
Prior 5.7%
Revised n/a

 
Another big gap up.
Quite a bit of the run up is due to new people entering the labor force to find work.
Could be due to new extended benefits program.
Could be due to more people looking to earn some extra money.

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Unemployment Rate ALLX 1 (Aug)

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Unemployment Rate ALLX 2 (Aug)

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Change in Nonfarm Payrolls (Aug)

Survey -75K
Actual -84K
Prior -51K
Revised -60K

 
A bit worse than expected and previous months revised up some, mainly due to state and local government reductions.

Weakness but still not recession type losses.

Cesar writes:

weak report

  • NFP down 84k; net revisions down another 58k, 8th straight mthly decline

Yes, continuing weakness in employment, but not at 200,000+ recession type levels.

Also, negative revisions for previous months means productivity was even higher.

  • Unemployment rate jumps from 5.682% to 6.055% (household employment down 342k and labor force up 250k)

Yes, big numbers entering the labor force have been contributing to the higher unemployment rate.

Some of this could be due to extended benefit programs and some could be to high pricers driving people out of ‘retirement’ and back into the labor force.

  • Diffusion index improves from 41.4 to 48.9
  • Index of aggregate hours drops 0.1% (3 months annualized rate down 1.8%)
  • Average duration of unemployment rises 17.1 to 17.4 weeks (median actually improved from 9.7 to 9.2)
  • Average hourly earnings rise 0.4% and increased from 3.4% y/y to 3.6% y/y
  • By sector:
    • Mfg down 61k
    • Construction down 8k
    • Retail down 20k
    • Temp down 37k
    • Education & Health care up 55k
    • Govt up 17k

The last two are the largest sectors and where the trend of growth generally comes from.

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Change in Manufacturing Payrolls (Aug)

Survey -35K
Actual -61K
Prior -35K
Revised -38K

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Mining-Manufacturing Employment ALLX (Aug)

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Average Hourly Earnings MoM (Aug)

Survey 0.3%
Actual 0.4%
Prior 0.3%
Revised 0.4%

 
A bit of an uptick, but not problematic at this point.

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Average Hourly Earnings YoY (Aug)

Survey 3.4%
Actual 3.6%
Prior 3.4%
Revised n/a

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Average Hourly Earnings ALLX 1 (Aug)

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Average Hourly Earnings ALLX 2 (Aug)

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Average Hourly Earnings ALLX 3 (Aug)

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Average Weekly Hours (Aug)

Survey 33.6
Actual 33.7
Prior 33.6
Revised 33.7

 
Hours per worker up, but total hours worked down due to job losses.

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Average Weekly Hours ALLX 1 (Aug)

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Average Weekly Hours ALLX 2 (Aug)

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Mortgage Delinquencies (2Q)

Survey n/a
Actual 6.41%
Prior 6.35%
Revised n/a

 
Still going up, but possibly the rate of increase has slowed.

Should level off as mortgages granted on fraudulent applications were largely eliminated over a year ago.

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Mortgage Delinquencies ALLX (2Q)


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2008-06-05 US Economic Releases


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2008-06-05 Initial Jobless Claims

Initial Jobless Claims (May 31)

Survey 375K
Actual 357K
Prior 372K
Revised 375K

Whoops, no recession here – the ‘better than expected’ trend continues.

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2008-06-05 Continuing Jobless Claims

Continuing Claims (May 24)

Survey 3110K
Actual 3093K
Prior 3104K
Revised 3109K

And these are now coming off as well.

The Great Repricing of Risk -‘the worst recession since the Great Depression’- is looking more like a tiny blip for the real economy?

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2008-06-05 Mortgage Delinquencies

Mortgage Delinquencies (1Q)

Survey n/a
Actual 6.35%
Prior 5.82%
Revised n/a

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2008-06-05 Mortgage Delinquencies Survey

Mortgage Delinquencies Survey

Lagging indicators that shows how bad it was, probably in Q4 2007.
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2008-06-05 ICSC Chain Store Sales YoY

ICSC Chain Store Sales YoY (May)

Survey 1.8%
Actual 3.0%
Prior 3.6%
Revised 3.5%

And yet another better than expected number.

The recent numbers are most likely better than Fed forecasters expected as well


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2008-03-06 US Economic Releases

2008-03-06 Initial Jobless Claims

Initial Jobless Claims (Mar 1)

Survey 360K
Actual 351K
Prior 373K
Revised 375K

So far staying near the 4 week average of about 360,000. While higher than before, this is no longer high enough for a large enough output gap to address the now elevated rate of inflation and upward creeping inflation expectations.


2008-03-06 Continuing Claims

Continuing Claims (Feb 23)

2008-03-06 Continuing Claims since 1985

Continuing Claims since 1985

Survey 2810K
Actual 2831K
Prior 2807K
Revised 2802K

This too, is far to low for an output gap that the Fed may deem necessary to bring down inflation. The longer term chart is more informative in this regard.


2008-03-06 Pending Home Sales MoM

Pending Home Sales MoM (Jan)

Survey -1.0%
Actual 0.0%
Prior -1.5%
Revised -1.2%

The last thing the Fed needs is for housing to pick up now and shrink the current output gap.
That would put them hundreds of basis points behind the inflation curve.


2008-03-06 Mortgage Delinquencies

Mortgage Delinquencies (4Q)

Survey n/a
Actual 5.82%
Prior 5.59%
Revised n/a

Mostly the sub prime buldge, but higher quality mtg delinquencies are up as well. Again, with higher inflation, the Fed needs a larger output gap.


2008-03-06 ICSC Chain Store Sales YoY

ICSC Chain Store Sales YoY (Feb)

Survey 0.6%
Actual 1.9%
Prior 0.5%
Revised n/a

Shows how domestic demand has been moderating over time, but not collapsing to recession levels.

2007-12-06 US Economic Releases

2007-12-06 Initial Jobless Claims

Initial Jobless Claims (Dec 1)

Survey 335K
Actual 338K
Prior 352K
Revised 353K

Down from the week before, chart still looks like a modest up move has taken place. Still comfortably below the 375-400K level that would signal a slowdown.



2007-12-06 Continuing Claims

Continuing Claims (Nov 24)

Survey 2620K
Actual 2599K
Prior 2665K
Revised 2658K

Also backing off from last week’s mini spike and not a problem for the fed at current levels.


2007-12-06 Mortgage Deliquencies

Mortgage Delinquencies (3Q)

Survey n/a
Actual 5.59%
Prior 5.12%
Revised n/a

 

Delinquencies up some, but probably not far from fed expectations.


2007-12-06 ICSC Chain Store Sales YoY

ICSC Chain Store Sales YoY

Survey 2.4%
Actual 3.5%
Prior 5.12%
Revised n/a

 

These look fine – up a touch and no sign of collapse.


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