10/1/09

Good morning. Today we’ve already seen the weekly Jobless Claims numbers, along with Personal Income and Consumption (which seem to be called “Outlays” these days). At 7AM we have the Construction Spending numbers, ISM Manufacturing Index, and Pending Home Sales. Spending/Consumption/Outlays, whatever, was up in August (the 4th month in a row and its fastest pace in nearly 8 years), and Personal Income was up as well. So the good news for the economy is that folks are spending, but the bad news is that the savings rate declined for the third straight month. But Jobless Claims were up from the prior week. Overall the numbers have pushed rates slightly lower:
Tomorrow we will have some important data. Estimates for Nonfarm Payroll are ranging around a loss of 175-200k. Lately the news about the economy has indicated that not everything is rosy. As always, it is a wait and see attitude regarding the economy. Hang in there.