(MENAFN– ecpulse) This week was actually a calm one for the U.S economy as it wasn’t packed with data as the previous one but in fact few indexes and reports were revealed confirming a moderate growth and mainly a constant improvement of labor conditions and higher durable goods orders.
In fact this indexes released reflected the continuation of a moderate recovery of overall sectors and the whole economy as already attested by last week’s Fed’s Beige Book and the Federal Reserve as recently no huge variation is witnessed throughout data released by different sectors.
Keeping in mind that the last week’s Fed’s Beige Book had the Federal Reserve attest that the U.S. economic growth was modest to moderate as all of the central bank’s districts reported solid consumer spending and stronger manufacturing.
Plus five districts reported “moderate” growth in June and July, down from seven in the prior report, while the remainder said they had “modest” expansions based on reports collected before July 7. Many regions saw growth for professional and business services, including health-care consulting, advertising, engineering, accounting and technology.
Accordingly this week the U.S durable goods orders rebounded in June but they have also beaten the market forecasts pointing accordingly to momentum in the economy at the end of the second quarter.
If truth be told this week the U.S Commerce Department said revealed that durable goods orders increased 0.7 percent as demand increased from transportation to machinery and computers and electronic products.
Orders for durable goods, items ranging from toasters to aircraft that are meant to last three years or more, were revised to show a slightly bigger 1.0 percent fall in May.
Plus non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, rebounded 1.4 percent after downwardly revised 1.2 percent decline in May.
In fact the durable goods orders for June came in at 0.7%; above the projected reading of 0.5% and from a prior revised reading of -1.0% from -1.0% while that excluding transportation it came in at 0.8%; above the predicted 0.5% and from a prior revised -0.1% from -0.1%.
Also this week we watch number of people who applied for unemployment insurance benefits in the week that ended July 19 plummet actually by 19,000 to 284,000, which is the lowest level since February 2006, indicating clearly that companies have further slowed down the pace of layoffs and are letting go of few workers.
In fact and to be more precise the initial jobless claims for July 19 came in at 284 thousand; below the projected 307 thousand and from a prior revised 303 thousand from 302 thousand while that the continuing claims for July 12 came in also below the market forecasts of 2510 thousand at 2500 thousand.
And going back to the Fed’s Beige Book the Federal Reserve said labor markets improved with all regions showing “slight to moderate employment growth.” Several noted “some difficulty finding workers for skilled positions.” Wage pressures “remained modest” in most districts.
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