Durables Recover. Another Regional Fed Manufacturing Index down.

Durable Goods Orders (January 2016)

– New Orders month/month +4.9%. Previous was -4.6%
– New Orders year/year    +1.8%. Previous was -0.6%
– Ex-transportation month/month  +1.8%. Previous was -0.7%
– Ex-transportation year/year    -0.6 %. Previous was -3.2%
– Core capital goods month/month   +3.9%. Previous was  -3.7%
– Core capital goods year/year   -2.8%. Previous was -7.5%.

The increased were good but represent, to a large extent, recovery by comparison with the previous miserable month and give hope that the manufacturing sector will not continue to deteriorate.

 

Initial Jobless Claims (week ended 2/20/2016)

– New Claims seasonally adjusted 272,000. Previous was 262,000
– New Claims totaled 248,703 a decrease of 9,729 from  previous
– 4-week Moving Average  272,000. Previous was 273,250.

Initial Jobless Claim remain low.

FHFA House Price Index (December 2015)

– Month/month +0.5%. Previous was +0.6%
– year/year +5.7%. Previous was +5.9%.

This is an index measuring the prices of homes purchases with FNMA of FHLMC loans.

Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Index (February 2016)

– Imdex level -12.  Previous was -9.

The regional Fed offers some insight: “The decline came from both durable and nondurable goods factories, particularly for food and beverage, chemical, metals, and plastics production. Activity was fairly weak across District states, in part due to continued low commodity prices for agriculture and energy.”