Jobless Claims Drop by 53,000
Apr 16, 8:56 AM ET |
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| The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.7% during the week ending April 4, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week. |
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| In the week ending April 11, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 610,000, a decrease of 53,000 from the previous week''''s revised figure of 663,000. The 4-week moving average was 651,000, a decrease of 8,500 from the previous week''''s revised average of 659,500. |
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Housing Starts Tumble 10.8% in March
Apr 16, 8:50 AM ET |
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| Single-family housing starts in March were at a rate of 358,000; this is unchanged from the revised February figure of 358,000. |
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| Privately-owned housing starts in March were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 510,000. This is 10.8% below the revised February estimate of 572,000 and is 48.4% below the March 2008 rate of 988,000. |
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The Beige Book
Apr 15, 2:20 PM ET |
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| Housing markets remained depressed overall, but there were some signs that conditions may be stabilizing. |
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| Manufacturing activity weakened across a broad range of industries in most Districts, with only a few exceptions. Nonfinancial service activity continued to contract across Districts. Retail spending remained sluggish, although some Districts noted a slight improvement in sales compared with the previous reporting period. |
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Crude Oil Inventories Rise
Apr 15, 10:56 AM ET |
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| Distillate fuel inventories decreased by 1.2 million barrels, and are above the upper boundary of the average range for this time of year. |
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| U.S. commercial crude oil inventories increased by 5.6 million barrels from the previous week. At 366.7 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are above the upper boundary of the average range for this time of year. Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 0.9 million barrels last week, and are above the upper boundary of the average range. Finished gasoline inventories rose last week while gasoline blending components inventories decreased during this same time. |
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Industrial Production Falls 1.5% in March
Apr 15, 9:29 AM ET |
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| Production in manufacturing moved down 1.7% in March and has registered five consecutive quarterly decreases. |
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| Industrial production fell 1.5% in March after a similar decrease in February. For the first quarter as a whole, output dropped at an annual rate of 20%, the largest quarterly decrease of the current contraction. At 97.4% of its 2002 average, output in March fell to its lowest level since December 1998 and was nearly 13% below its year-earlier level. |
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Consumer Price Index Declines 0.1% in March
Apr 15, 9:29 AM ET |
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| All the energy indexes decreased, particularly the indexes for fuel oil, natural gas, and motor fuel. |
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| On a seasonally adjusted basis, the CPI-U decreased 0.1% in March after rising 0.4% in February. The decrease was due to a downturn in the energy index, which declined 3% in March after rising 3.3% the previous month. |
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Bernanke Sees Signs of Economic Recovery
Apr 14, 10:40 AM ET |
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| The Federal Reserve will continue to take the necessary steps to unclog the credit markets and strengthen the economy. |
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| The Fed''''s mandate from the Congress is to promote maximum sustainable employment and stable prices. In addition, the Fed is expected to contribute to financial stability by acting to contain financial disruptions and prevent their spread outside of the financial sector. Thus, we have been serving as a first responder to the crisis. |
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Business Inventories Fall 1.3% in February
Apr 14, 10:22 AM ET |
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| The total business inventories/sales ratio based on seasonally adjusted data at the end of February was 1.43. |
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| Manufacturers’ and trade inventories, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of $1,421.3 billion, down 1.3% from January 2009 and down 3.5% from February 2008. |
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Retail Sales Decline 1.1%
Apr 14, 9:22 AM ET |
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| Retail trade sales were down 1.1% from February 2009 and 10.7% below last year. |
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| The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for March, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $344.4 billion, a decrease of 1.1% from the previous month and 9.4% below March 2008. |
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Producer Price Index Drops 1.2% in March
Apr 14, 9:06 AM ET |
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| The finished energy goods index declined 5.5% following a 1.3% increase in February. |
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| The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods decreased 1.2% in March, seasonally adjusted, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. This decline followed a 0.1% advance in February and a 0.8% increase in January. At the earlier stages of processing, prices received by producers of intermediate goods fell 1.5% after decreasing 0.9% a month earlier, and the crude goods index declined 0.3% following a 4.5% drop in February. |
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