Key Economic Indicators – November 17, 2014

  • Advance estimates of retail and food services sales for October were up 0.3% from September, and were up 4.1% from October 2013, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
  • Total manufacturing and trade sales for September were virtually unchanged from August, while inventories were up 0.3%, , according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
  • Sales of merchant wholesalers for September were up 0.2%, while inventories were up 0.3%, , according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
  • The federal government budget ran a deficit of $121.7 billion in October, after a surplus of $105.8 billion in the previous month, according to the Bureau of Fiscal Service, Department of the Treasury.
  • The advance figure for initial claims for unemployment insurance increased by 12 thousand to 290 thousand in the week ending November 8,  according to the Labor Department.  The 4-week moving average was 285 thousand, an increase of 6 thousand from the previous week’s average.
  • The import price index decreased 1.3% in October, while the export price index decreased 1.0%, according to the Labor Department. The import price index decreased 1.8% from October 2013, while the price index for exports decreased 0.8%.
  • The results of Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey showed fixed mortgage rates little changed from the previous week. 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.01% for the week ending November 13th, down from last week when it averaged 4.02%.
  • Mortgage applications decreased 0.9% from a week earlier, according to data from Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Applications Survey for the week ending November 7th.
  • The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment rose to 89.4 for early November, up from 86.9 in October.

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