The Word of the Day is “Flat.”

Initial Jobless Claims (week ended 1/18/2014)

– New Claims (seasonally adjusted)  326,000. Previous was 325,000
– New Claims (unadjusted) were 411,678 in, a decrease of 121,020 from the previous week
– 4-week Moving Average 331,500. Previous was 335,000

As I have been commenting for the past several weeks, I believe that this data does not accurately measure the jobs market on a weekly basis because the seasonal adjustments overwhelm the changes in the raw data.  The question is “are we measuring the accuracy of jobless claims or the accuracy of the seasonal adjustments?” The real world fact is that 411,678 people filed new claims last week.

Existing Home Sales (December 2013)

– Existing Home Sales (seasonally adjusted, annualized) 4,870,000. Previous was revised to 4,820,000

Existing Home Sales had been falling and were down 4.3% in November.

 
FHFA House Price Index (November 2013)

– Month/Month change +0.1%. Previous was +0.5%
– Year/Year change +7.6%. Previous was +8.1%.

Stability of home prices is a positive thing.

This index includes only home acquired with FNMA or FHLMC financing.  It does not include homes acquired using Jumbo mortgages or FHA or VA financing.

Chicago Federal Reserve  National Activity Index (December 2013)

– Index  Level 0.16. Previous was 0.60.

This is a weighted average of 85 already published monthly indicators.

Leading Economic Indicators (December 2013)

– Leading Indicators +0.1%. Previous was +1.0%

This is an index calculated by the Conference Board from 10 other pieces of data.  Money Supply (M2) and equity prices had been driving this.