Category Archives: Economic News

With the recent market rally there has been a lot of talk about the sustainability of this run up.  It is important to always take a step back and keep things in perspective.  When building an investment strategy,

It was an especially busy week of the month for housing-related data. (-) Existing home sales rose +0.8% for the month of February, which was a bit light compared to the +1.6% gain expected (however, a revision upward for the … Continue reading →

The Fed Open Market Committee completed their March two-day meeting with no significant changes to their policy or communication to the outside world. However, they did acknowledge an improvement in the nation’s growth prospects (to ‘moderate’), as noted by economic … Continue reading →

The big news of the week from an economic front was arguably the government sequester that took hold as promised on March 1. Interestingly, this strategy has traditionally been considered as an option so unpalatable to politicians that it would … Continue reading →

0) The CPI inflation number for January was flat, which was a bit less than the slight increase of +0.1% expected. However, the core inflation number—which excludes more volatile food and energy prices—gained +0.3% as opposed to an expected +0.2%. … Continue reading →

With employment, ISM and GDP all in the news, this was one of the higher-profile reporting weeks in some time. (0) To set the tone, the Federal Open Market Committee met mid-week and no changes in policy were announced (see … Continue reading →

(-) Existing home sales for December fell by -1.0%, which ran contrary to an expected +1.2% gain, and obviously was a bit of a disappointment.  Single family home sales dropped by -1.4%, which were offset somewhat by condo sales, which … Continue reading →

As expected, the FOMC did not indicate any change in the Fed Funds rate target at the conclusion of yesterday’s meeting.  The formal statement put out by the committee was largely as anticipated, with continued guidance of keeping rates ‘exceptionally … Continue reading →

The FOMC today made no changes on the interest rate front—which was no surprise—and is keeping rates at a very accommodative 0.00-0.25% range.  Despite mentioning that ‘strains in global financial markets have eased,’ they signaled an intention to keep rates … Continue reading →

It was a fairly light week, as far as economic data was concerned. Existing home sales increased in January by +4.3% to 4.57 million units, which was higher than forecast but was somewhat tempered by some adjustments to the December … Continue reading →