Current-Cast® Report

• Advance estimates of retail and food services sales for February were up 1.1% from January, and were up 4.6% from February 2012.
• Total manufacturing and trade sales for January were down 0.3%, while inventories were up 1.0%.
• Total Industrial production increased 0.7% in February, after increasing less than 0.1% in the previous month.
• The federal government budget ran a deficit of $203.5 billion in February, after a surplus of $2.9 billion in the previous month.
• The current account deficit decreased to $110.4 billion in the fourth quarter, from $112.4 billion in the previous quarter.
• Treasury International Capital reported net foreign purchases of long-term securities of $48.2 billion in January, compared with net purchases of $76.5 billion in the previous month.
• The consumer price index (headline index), which held steady in January, increased 0.7% in February, while the core index increased 0.2%. The headline index and the core index both rose 2.0% for the 12-month period ending in February.
• The producer price index for finished goods (headline index) increased 0.7% in February, while the core index increased 0.2%. The producer price index for finished goods increased 1.7% from February 2012 to February 2013.
• The import price index increased 1.1% in February, while the export price index increased 0.8%.
• The advance figure for initial claims for unemployment insurance decreased 10 thousand to 322 thousand in the week ending March 9.
• Real average hourly earnings for all employees decreased 0.6% from January to February.
• The results of Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey showed average fixed mortgage rates rising this week.
• Mortgage applications decreased 4.7% from a week earlier, according to data from Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Applications Survey for the week ending March 8^st.
• The March Empire State Manufacturing Survey indicated that the conditions for New York manufacturers continued to improve modestly.
• The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment, preliminary, for March dropped to 71.8, the lowest level since December 2011.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 18th, 2013 at 5:45 AM and is filed under Key Economic Indicators. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.