Durable Goods Orders Recover some of Previous Loss.

Durable Goods Orders (March 2016)

– New Orders month/month  +0.8%. Previous was -3.1%
– New Orders year/year    -2.5%. Previous was +1.6%
– Ex-transportation month/month  -0.2%. Previous was -1.3%
– Ex-transportation year/year     -1.4%. Previous was -0.6%
– Core capital goods month/month  +0.0%. Previous was -2.7%
– Core capital goods year/year   -2.4%. Previous was  -0.8%

One could look at this data and spin the tale that it is positive because the headline is positive but the fact is that the headline shows a recovery of a quarter of the previous month’s loss.  DGO is about worldwide manufacturing and this is a picture of both a contracting of growth in the world economy and the serious plight of the domestic manufacturing sector.

Redbook (week ended 4/23/2016)

– Chain Store Sales year/year % +0.8%. Previous was +0.5%

S&P Case-Shiller HPI (February 2016)

– 20-city, seasonally adjusted month/month  +0.7%. Previous was +0.8%
– 20-city, not seasonally adjusted month/month  +0.2%. Previous was +0.0%
– 20-city, not seasonally adjusted year/year +5.4%. Previous was 5.7%.

 

Consumer Confidence (April 2016)

– Consumer Confidence 94.2. Previous was 96.1.

This is the University of Michigan metric.  This is supposed to forecast consumer spending in the next 3-6 months.

Richmond Federal Reserve Manufacturing (April 2016)

– Index value 14.  Previous was 22.

The 22 from March was the largest increase ever.  Recent regional Fed Manufacturing reports have indicated improvement.