about 9 hours ago
Weekly Indicators: housing neutral but stocks and jobless claims near records edition
By: New_Deal_democratAugust data included an increase in the Index of Leading Indicators, helped in part by an increase in housing permits and starts. Existing homes sales declined. My usual note: I look at the high frequency weekly indicators because while they can be very noisy, they provide a good Now-cast of the economy, and will telegraph the maintenance or change in the economy well before monthly or quarterly data is available. Read more
&p[url]=/blog/xe-market-analysis/august-housing-permits-and-starts-restrain-your-enthusiasm-part-2-2&p[summary]=This is the conclusion of my examination of housing permits and starts for August. Yesterday I noted that the good news in overall permits was not confirmed by the less volatile but equally leading single family permits, was not confirmed by starts, and was not confirmed when we remove the hurricane-affected South (where, paradoxically, builders may have accelerated taking out permits before the storms, as the relevant offices were likely to be disrupted for weeks afterward).
I wanted to follow up with one final note: in the past I have noted that single family permits typically peak before multi-family permits.&p[images][0]=/s3/files/styles/large/s3/image_1114.jpg?itok=Ra520xMA){kind=link}