Economy

After a strong uptick in February, the Chicago Fed National Activity Index took a bit of a breather in March 2018.  This indicator, which looks at 85 components, decelerated to +0.10 versus +0.98.  Adding to the tepid tone of the release, the three-month moving average slowed to +0.27 from +0.31 a month earlier. 

Retail sales were strong in March according to the Census Bureau.  This is good for an economy like ours which thrives on consumption.  Sales for retail and food services increased 0.6 percent to end the first quarter of 2018.  This uptick follows a disappointing February which experienced a declined of 0.1 percent.

America’s economy decelerated in the final three months of 2017 according to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).  On an inflation-adjusted annualized basis, output grew by 2.6 percent from October through December.  This followed improvements of 3.1 percent and 3.5 percent in the second and third quarters respectively.  Despite the

Economic activity remained strong in November 2017 according to the latest data from the Institute for Supply Management.  Both the goods and services sides of the economy maintained tallies well over 50.0, the level considered neither expansionary nor contractionary.  This continued strength bodes well for the fourth quarter figure on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which will be releas

Durable Goods Orders increased 1.7 percent in August 2017 according to the Census Bureau’s most recent release. This uptick, the second of the last three months, reversed just a portion of the 6.8 percent decrease in July. Transportation’s 4.9 percent surge led this indicator higher; excluding this component leaves an improvement of 0.2 percent.