August 2013

A Brief Blurb on the July FOMC Meeting Minutes

Investors and the press love to read the tea leaves of the FOMC meeting minutes.  Most in the press believe July 31st Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting minutes confirm quantitative easing, the $85 billion a month in mortgage backed securities and asset purchases, will be reduced starting in September.  We don't know that answer but we can guess.   From the minutes:

June retail sales revisions up 0.2%, greater than entire July increase

According to the Advance Retail and Food Services Sales Report for July (pdf) from the Census Bureau, the seasonally adjusted advance estimate of retail and food services sales for the month was $424.5 billion, an increase of 0.2 percent (±0.5%)* over June's revised sales of $432.6 billion and 5.4% (±0.7%) above last July's $402.7 billion.  The asterisk tells us that the Census Bureau does not have sufficie

Industrial Production Flatlines for July 2013

The July 2013 Federal Reserve's Industrial Production & Capacity Utilization report shows no change in industrial production.  Manufacturing alone declined -0.1% for the month.  Utilities dropped -2.1% and is the 4th monthly decline in a row.  The G.17 industrial production statistical release is also known as output for factories and mines.

Initial Unemployment Insurance Claims Goes to Pre-Recession Levels

The DOL reported people filing for initial unemployment insurance benefits in the week ending on July 13th, 2013 was 320,000, a 15,000 decrease from the previous week of 335,000.  This is the second time in three weeks initial claims has hit pre-recession levels and the last time levels were this low is October 2007.

 

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