US Outlook Report: Consumer Credit Spigot Remains Open There is growing concern as to whether or not the American consumer can continue to prop up the U.S. economy. One place to look for answers is in data on consumer credit, which can be an important indicator of consumer spending on services and durable goods. Solid […]
Continue ReadingInstant Analysis of Today’s FOMC Meeting The Federal Reserve decided not to hike the Fed funds target rate at the March FOMC meeting today- as widely expected. The headline from this week’s meeting is the big cut in the FOMC “dot-plot” interest rate path through 2018. In one fell swoop, the FOMC cut the […]
Continue ReadingU.S. Outlook Report: The U.S. Economy Moving in the Right Direction Global equity markets breathed a sigh of relief this week as U.S. economic data showed signs the economy is continuing to grow. The first positive sign came last week, when Q4 2015 real GDP was revised upward to1.0%, and personal income and spending for […]
Continue ReadingInstant Analysis of Today’s Employment Report for February Another solid employment report for February that generally beat consensus expectations. The U.S. economy created another +242K net nonfarm jobs last month. December and January’s job gains were revised up a net +30K jobs as well. Over the past three months, the U.S. economy has added on […]
Continue ReadingUS Outlook Report: The Housing Sector Still On Solid Ground Despite a disappointing new home sales report for January, the U.S. housing market is poised for continued gains in the months to come. More winter-weather in January led to mixed readings on housing starts and new home sales, but it is too early to call […]
Continue ReadingUS Outlook Report: Soothing Signs of Economic Growth This week’s influx of somewhat better U.S. economic data and tentative stabilization in crude oil prices provide more evidence that economic contraction in the near-term is unlikely. Importantly, U.S. industrial production growth accelerated to an 11.7 percent annualized pace in January, the best annualized rate of growth […]
Continue ReadingUS Outlook Report: One Monetary Step Too Far We have become quite accustomed to financial crises over the past decade: the sub-prime crisis, the housing bubble collapse, the European sovereign debt crisis, Grexit, the oil crisis, and the list continues to grow. Global central banks have largely fought these financial crises with extraordinary monetary policies, […]
Continue ReadingLOGIN CREATE AN ACCOUNT February 2016 CA Exports Fall In 2015 The total value of California’s export trade for 2015 is in and for the first time since 2009 the state experienced an annual decline — driven by both falling prices and demand. Still, California fared better than most of the other top export states… […]
Continue ReadingMarketWatch: U.S. exports fall in 2015 for first time since recession WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The nation’s trade deficit rose 2.7% in December as exports fell again, capping the first year since 2009 in which U.S. exports have declined. The U.S. trade gap increased to a seasonally adjusted $43.4 billion from $42.2 billion in November, government data […]
Continue ReadingUS Outlook Report: Growth Trends Have Flipped on Their Head Nearly two years ago we wrote a piece on how impressive the economic performance of oil producing states was in 2013 and noted how their performance outpaced the nation by a large margin. Today, in the midst of sinking commodity prices, volatile equity markets, […]
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