EconomPic Data
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Case Shiller Surge in Perspective
Following my post about existing homes (the homes that are selling are lower-end), below is some detail of the most recent Case Shiller home price index release.The deal? Home prices are SURGING (except in Vegas).But, we need to put that SURGE in perspective.Source: S&P
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More on Existing Home Sales
Last week EconomPic detailed the strength in the existing home sales jump wasn't as strong as detailed... namely due to the discounts required to get those homes sold.Barry at The Big Picture provides additional detail:Less than 10% of the homes sold in the US were > $500k. We know the high end has …
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The Death of the Newspaper
The AP details:Circulation at newspapers shrank at an accelerated pace in the past six months, driven in part by stiff price increases imposed by publishers scrambling to offset rapidly eroding advertising sales.Average daily circulation at 379 U.S. newspapers plunged 10.6 percent in the April-Septe …
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Dallas Manufacturing Turns Down
We all know about Texas and the energy business, but Bizjournals details its manufacturing prowess:The Lone Star state produces at least 8 percent of the United States’ total manufactured goods, ranking behind California in production.Who knew? Unfortunately, Reliable Plant details the less than ent …
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On the Relationship Between High Yield and Equities
Bloomberg details the outperformance of high yield relative to equities: The worst performance by U.S. stocks compared with junk bonds since at least1986 is making investors even more bullish on equities. While owning debt in the riskiest companies has paid about the same as the Standard & Poor’ …
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Business Loans Record Freefall
We have detailed the deflationary pressures from low capacity utilization and high unemployment before, but John Mauldin details the deflationary pressure coming out of an area that was / is supposed to power the U.S. recovery... businesses. We have detailed the pullback in new loans to consumers, b …
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Non-Manufacturing Layoffs Continue to Rise
In the most recent Mass Layoff (i.e. an action involving the layoff of at least 50 persons from a single employer) release, we see a bifurcation between manufacturing and all other positions. While it appears that manufacturing mass layoffs are coming off highs, which results in the downturn of ove …
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EconomPics of the Week (10/23/09)
Economic DataU.S.Existing Home Sales... Not as Strong as You May ThinkU.S. Fighting While We We're Down: Productivity Edges HigherStrong, But "Flaky" Leading Economic IndicatorsState by State Unemployment: Nowhere to HideProducer Prices Surprise to the DownsideConsumer Sentiment Sluggish GlobalEuroz …
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Existing Home Sales... Not as Strong as You May Think
Bloomberg reports:Sales of existing U.S. homes surged a record 9.4 percent in September as Americans rushed to take advantage of a tax credit for first-time buyers before it expires next month. Purchases rose to a 5.57 million annual rate, more than forecast and the highest in more than two years, t …
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Eurozone Industrial Production: Strong, but Split
The GoodInteractive Investor with the details:"Euro zone industrial orders encouragingly rose by a larger-than-expected 2.0 percent month-on-month in August, thereby achieving a fourth successive increase. The underlying improvement was highlighted by the fact that euro zone industrial orders jumped …
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UK Economy Continues to Contract
The U.K. "surprised"with a 6th straight quarter of contraction. George Buckley of Deutsche Bank via the Telegraph with the details:"The worst thing is that every single component of GDP that was published did not rise. It's a bad number. It's the first time that we have seen a six straight quarters …
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The Politics of Global Warming
File this under the "what the what" section. Yahoo reports:Just 57 percent think there is solid evidence the world is getting warmer, down 20 points in just three years, a new poll says. And the share of people who believe pollution caused by humans is causing temperatures to rise has also taken a d …
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U.S. Fighting While We We're Down: Productivity Edition
WSJ reports:Both the U.S. and South Korea saw productivity rise 1.2% in 2008, the first full year of the recession, from 2007. They experienced the largest increases of the 17 countries included in the Labor Department's international manufacturing-productivity report released Thursday. Productivity …
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Strong, But "Flaky" Leading Economic Indicators
Not sure why the .pdf of the latest Leading Economic Indicators is called "Flaky.pdf", but the results are strong none-the-less. Marketwatch reports:U.S. leading economic indicators rose 1% in September, the sixth straight increase and a strong signal that a "recovery is developing," the Conference …
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What if the U.S. is Unable to Power the Global Recovery?
Reuters details:Japan's exports edged lower for the third consecutive month in September as a rising yen weighs on overseas shipments and as a rebound driven by global stimulus spending and the stocking of inventories starts to wane.Shipments to China continued to improve, but economists doubt this …
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State by State Unemployment: Nowhere to Hide
The BLS details:Between August and September 2009, 15 states and the District of Columbia experienced statistically significant changes in employment, all of which were decreases. The largest statistically significant job losses occurred in New York (-81,700), Texas (-44,700), California (-39,300), …
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Producer Prices Surprise to the Downside
NY Times details:Even as investors were bidding up the prices of commodities like oil and gold last month, wholesale prices in the United States were falling, reflecting weak demand at home.The government’s Producer Price Index fell 0.6 percent in September after rising by 1.7 percent a month earlie …
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Commercial Real Estate Fiasco
Bloomberg details the fiasco that is the commercial real estate market:Commercial property values in the U.S. declined in August as job losses and the recession cut demand for offices, retail space and rental apartments.The Moody’s/REAL Commercial Property Price Indices fell 3 percent in August fr …
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The Rich Get Richer: Weekly Wage Edition
Wages rose across the board! Good news right? Not necessarily. Per the WSJ:There were about 8.2 million fewer full-time wage and salary workers in the third quarter than two years ago; the data doesn't include part-time or self-employed workers. Low-wage workers are hit disproportionally during rece …
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On the Attractiveness of Treasuries
The BadThe ten year treasury bond is yielding 3.4%.The GoodThat yield is 4.7% above the latest year over year CPI print, the highest level in 25 years.So, are longer dated Treasuries a good investment? Depends on your outlook for interest rates and inflation. That measly 3.4% is still 140 bps higher …
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