Today’s updates on initial jobless claims and the Chicago Fed National Activity Index bring encouraging news for the US economy as the nation prepares to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. New filings for jobless benefits dropped again last week, falling to the lowest level since late-September. Meanwhile, the three-month average of the Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI-MA3) inched ahead in October, reaching the highest level in eight months. Taken together, these two numbers bring a slightly stronger positive aura to the US economic outlook. It’s still premature to argue that growth overall is set to accelerate, but the data du jour suggest that it’s not getting any easier to be a pessimist when it comes to big-picture macro analysis.
Daily Archives: November 27, 2013
Is The Latest Rise In Housing Permits A Sign Of Things To Come?
Yesterday’s surprisingly strong update on newly issued housing permits is a convincing signal for expecting that the residential real estate market will continue to grow in the near term. The double-shot releases of September and October data for permits beat expectations by a healthy margin. Last month’s number was especially strong, with permits rising to a 5-year high. The release of the hard data on housing starts, which usually accompanies the permit numbers, has been postponed until Dec. 16. But since permits and starts tend to track one another through time, yesterday’s upbeat news suggests that it’s likely that the triple play of September, October and November starts data that we’ll see next month will tell an encouraging tale.