{"id":388,"date":"2010-04-01T16:58:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-01T20:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.intuitiveinvestor.com\/web\/?p=388"},"modified":"2018-08-20T15:44:38","modified_gmt":"2018-08-20T19:44:38","slug":"further-mixed-economic-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/2010\/04\/01\/further-mixed-economic-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Further mixed economic data"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today saw the release of other economic data beyond initial jobless claims.\u00a0 Specifically, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s construction spending figures and the Insitute of Supply Management’s manufacturing index.<\/span><\/p>\n

Construction spending in February fell by 1.3%, its\u00a0fourth consecutive monthly decline.\u00a0 Additionally, January’s data were revised down to 1.4% past the initial estimation of down 0.6%.\u00a0 Both commercial and residential real estate continue to suffer.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ISM’s manufacturing index increased to 59.6 in March from 56.5 in February.\u00a0 This index is peculiar in that any number above 50 represents growth.\u00a0\u00a0March’s figure is the strongest since July 2004.<\/span><\/p>\n

Analysis:<\/strong> Economic data continue to be mixed, neither providing a strongly positive or negative picture for the economy.\u00a0 That construction remains weak is a sure sign that either credit remains tight or that prospective borrowers are reluctant to take on debt.\u00a0 A full economic recovery will need a robust credit\/debt market to support new business ideas and new consumer dreams.\u00a0 The manufacturing data is very encouraging because the U.S. manufacturing sector has been battered for close to 40 years as increasing amounts of\u00a0goods are\u00a0made outside of the U.S.\u00a0 While the ISM report is upbeat, the manufacturing sector is no longer the labor-intensive industry that it once was, meaning that even energetic hiring by employers in this sector does not dent the overall unemployment rate.<\/span><\/p>\n

On balance, the economy seems still to be stabilizing, without much upward movement.\u00a0 Each additional month of stabilization solidifies the recovery and makes it less likely that a “double-dip” recession will happen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Importance grade:<\/strong> 5; neither statistic provides overwhelming evidence of anything other than an economy treading water.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jason<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today saw the release of other economic data beyond initial jobless claims.\u00a0 Specifically, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s construction spending figures and the Insitute of Supply Management’s manufacturing index. Construction spending in February fell by 1.3%, its\u00a0fourth consecutive monthly decline.\u00a0 Additionally, January’s data were revised down to 1.4% past the initial estimation of down 0.6%.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}