Mixed Bag: Durables down, Consumer Confidence up.

Durable Goods Orders (December 2014)

– New Orders month/month -3.4%. Previous was -2.1%
– Ex-transportation month/month  -0.8%. Previous was -1.3%.

Manufacturing is soft but is no longer very large part of the economy.  Dollar strength will make things worse because it will now be tougher for U.S. companies to export Durables because the will be more expensive in Euros.  The metric is of domestic Durable Goods.

 

Redbook (week ended 1/24/2015)
– Store Sales year/year +3.2%. Previous was +3.0%.

S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index (November 2014)

– 20-city, seasonally adjusted month/month  +0.7%. Previous was +0.7%
– 20-city, not seasonally adjusted month/month -0.2%. Previous was 0.1%
– 20-city, not seasonally adjusted year/year +4.3%. Previous was +4.5%

PMI Services Flash (January 2015)

– Level 54.0. Previous was 53.8.

 

New Home Sales (December 2014)

– New Home Sales seasonally adjusted, annualized 481,000. Previous was 431,000.

This is an improvement over  November’s poor data.

 

Consumer Confidence  (January 2015)

– Confidence 102.9. Previous was 93.1.

This is The Conference Board’s metric. This is very strong and is supposed to be a leading indicator of Consumer Spending.

 

Richmond Federal Reserve Manufacturing Index  (January 2015)

– level change 6. Previous was 7.

This is a survey index.