Key Economic Indicators – September 30, 2013

  • Real GDP increased at an annual rate of 2.5% in the second quarter of 2013 after increasing at 1.1% in the previous quarter.  The price index for gross domestic purchases increased 0.2% in the second quarter, compared to an increase of 1.2% in the previous quarter.
  • Corporate profits from current production increased $66.8 billion in the first quarter, after a decrease of $26.6 billion in the previous quarter.
  • Personal income increased 0.4%, in August, while personal consumption expenditures increased 0.3%. Personal savings as percent of personal disposable income were 4.6% in August, up from 4.5% in the previous month.
  • The price index for personal consumption expenditures (headline index) increased 0.1% in August, while the core index increased of 0.2%. Both indexes were up 1.2% from August 2012.
  • New orders for manufactured durable goods increased 0.1% in August, while shipments increased 0.9% in August.
  • August new home sales were up 7.9% from the previous month, and were up 12.6% from a year ago. The median sales price of new houses sold was $254.6 thousand, 0.6% above August 2012.
  • U.S. House prices rose 1.0% on a seasonally adjusted basis from June to July, following a 0.7% increase in the previous period, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) monthly House Price Index. The July House Price Index change marks the eighteenth consecutive monthly price increase in the purchase-only, seasonally adjusted index. For the 12 months ending in July, U.S. prices rose 8.8%.
  • The S & P/Case-Shiller National U.S. Home Price Index posted annual increases of 12.3% and 12.4% in the 12 months ending in July, for the 10-city and 20-city composite indices, respectively. As of July 2013, both composite indexes were back to their spring 2004 levels, and were about 21-22% below their June/July 2006 peaks.
  • The Pending Home Sales Index, a leading indicator for the housing sector, decreased 1.6% to a reading of 107.7 in August, according to the National Association of Realtors.
  • The results of Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey of September 26th showed average fixed mortgage rates moving lower following the Federal Reserve announcement that it will maintain its bond buying stimulus.
  • Mortgage applications increased 5.5% from a week earlier, according to data from Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Applications Survey for the week ending September 20th.
  • Domestic non-financial debt rose at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.1% and reached $41,041.4 billion at the end of second quarter of 2013.
  • The U.S. net international investment position was negative $4,504.1 billion at the end of the second quarter as the value of foreign investments in the United States exceeded the value of U.S. investments abroad.
  • The advance figure for initial claims for unemployment insurance decreased 5 thousand to 305 thousand in the week ending September 21st.
  • The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index, which had increased slightly in August, decreased slightly in September.
  • The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment fell to its lowest level since early in the year.

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