Personal Income and Spending up.

MBA Mortgage Applications  (week ended 12/18/2015)

– Purchase Index Week/Week +4.0%. Previous weeks were -3.0%, +0.04%, +8.0%, -1.0%, +12.0%, +0.1%, -1.0%, -3.0%, +16.0%, -34.0%, +27.0%, -6.0%, and +9.0%,.

– Refinance Index Week/Week +11.0%. Previous weeks were +1.0%, +4.0%, -6.0%, -5.0%, +2.0%, -2.0%, -1.0%, -4.0%, +9.0%, -23.0%, +24.0%, -8.0%, and +18.0%.

– Composite Index Week/Week +7.3%. Previous weeks were -1.1%, +1.2%, -0.2%, -3.2%, +6.2%, -1.3%, -0.8%, -3.5%, +11.8%, -27.6%, +25.5%, and -6.7%.

 

Durable Goods Orders  (November 2015)
– New Orders month/month +0.0%. Previous was +2.9%
– New Orders year/year +1.2%. Previous was +0.4%
– Ex-transportation month/month -0.1%. Previous was +0.5%
– Ex-transportation year/year -1.9%. Previous was -2.4%
– Core capital goods month/month -0.4%. Previous was +0.6%
– Core capital goods year/year -1.8%. Previous was -0.2%.

DGO have been weak lately.  October was an exception.  This data points to a weakened manufacturing segment.

 

New Home Sales (November 2015)

– New Home Sales (seasonally adjusted, annualized) 490,000. Previous was 470,000.

 

University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment (December 2015)

– Sentiment Index  92.6. Previous was 92.00.

Consumer Sentiment remains strong. This is a survey index. It is supposed to be a leading indicator of Consumer Spending in the next three months.

Personal Income and Outlays (November 2015)

– Personal Income month/month +0.3%. Previous was +0.4%
– Consumer Spending month/month +0.3%. Previous was +0.3%
– PCE Price Index month/month  0.0%. Previous was +0.1%
– Core PCE price index month/month +0.1%. Previous was +0.0%
– PCE Price Index year/year  +0.4%. Previous was +0.2%
– Core PCE price index year/year +1.3%. Previous was +1.3%.

Both Personal Income and Spending were +0.3% in November. With the overall PCE up only 0.4% year/year the consumer is in somewhat better shape.