FYI: Last week was a solid one in economic data as a majority of US releases improved from the previous period or were better than forecasts were predicting. The only release on Monday was data on consumer credit for July which was much stronger than expected thanks to credit card spending. Tuesday's JOLTS report and NFIB Small Business Optimism were both forecasted to weaken from the prior month's release. Actual results were even weaker than these expectations. Despite the weaker JOLTS report, other labor data improved with NFIB data showing a record percentage of businesses reporting quality labor hard to find and NSA jobless claims at a 50-year low. Last week also saw multiple inflation releases including PPI, CPI, and export/import prices. While PPI was stronger than expected across the board, headline CPI was 0.1% below expectations, but core CPI remains solid at 2.4% (above forecasts of 2.3%). Export and import prices, on the other hand, remain in negative territory. Retail sales, released Friday, beat on the headline number but missed when removing auto and gas sales.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.bespokepremium.com/interactive/posts/think-big-blog/this-weeks-economic-indicators-9-16-19
