Quick takes and charts on all today’s data

Personal income stagnating. New Home Sales improve, but still, 2011 numbers aren’t pretty.

Today’s stats: new home sales, Dallas Fed manufacturing. And the latest ‘Everything’s OK In Europe’ story.

Durable Goods Orders (September) -New Orders – Month/Month -0.8 % -Ex-transportation – Month/Month 1.7 % -It is possible that this indicates that the GDP gains in 3rdQ will not be matched by the 4thQ. The flattening of the leading Consumer Metrics data is still there. Housing -New Home Sales (seasonally adjusted annual rate) 313,000. -Previous [...]

Housing -New Home Sales for August were 295,000 (annualized) -Previous was 298,000 -This is a 6-month low -Prices were -7.7% year-on-year, worst since July 2009 -This is despite lower prices and record low mortgage rates. -New Homes are important to economic growth: they provide jobs for the workers who build them and many other jobs [...]

Retail Sales -ICSC-Goldman Same Store Sales Week/Week: -1.0% -ICSC-Goldman Same Store Sales Year/Year: 3.0% -Redbook Same Store Sales Year/Year: 3.6% -Redbook Previous was 4.7% -If consumer spending keeps slowing, we’ll have another recession Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index -August index change: -10 (vs. -1 for July) -Full report -More evidence supply side was more confident than [...]

June New Home Sales -New Home Sales: 312,000 (annualized) -312k is less than half 700k economists consider healthy -Down 1% from May, up 1.6% from June 2010 -Median new home sales price up 7.2% to $235,200 -Average new home sales price $269,000 -60% of the gain is in the South -6.3 months supply at current [...]

Initial Jobless Claims – 429,000 for week ended June 18, up 9,000 from previous week – 4-week moving average 426,250, unchanged from previous week – Claims have been above 400,000 for the past 11 weeks – Job market remains extremely weak. Home Sales – May New Home Sales: 319,000 (annualized) – Down 2.1% since April, [...]

Rates remain at 2011 lows on mostly weaker economic reports. Below is a recap last week to today, newest first. Mortgage bonds rise on worse news, causing rates to fall and vice versa, so headlines are categorized accordingly. Rates should hold this week, which is dominated by May jobs reports (Wed and Fri) with latest [...]

Housing: -New Home Sales (for April) were 323,000 whch was better than previous and consensus. Retail Sales: -ICSC Goldman was +3.1% year over year. -Redbook was +3.4% year over year. -The Consumer Metrics Institute of online sales while still showing contraction has improved in the past week. Recent weeks Retail Sales have been impacted by [...]