Locator: 49223ECONOMY.
US economic numbers: unless I'm misreading / misinterpreting these numbers, these are very, very good numbers:
- GDP, 2Q25 real GDP: 3.8% vs 3.3%;
- PCE price index: 2.1%
- Core PCE: 2.6%
- unemployment rate: 4.3%
- initial jobless claims:218K vs 235K estimate
- weekly contin: -2,000 to 1.9 million
- August durable goods: 2.9% vs -0.5%.
US existing home sales: great story -- much better than expected
- down 0.2% m/m but incredibly less than the 1.5% decline expected
- big story now: inventory of available houses dropping -- and dropping fast
Initial claims for unemployment insurance were well below expectations last week, helping to douse caution at the Federal Reserve and elsewhere that the labor market is in danger.
First-time filings for the week ending Sept. 20 totaled a seasonally adjusted 218,000, down 14,000 from the prior week’s upwardly revised figure and significantly less than the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 235,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
Continuing claims, which run a week behind, were little changed, falling 2,000 to 1.926 million.
The release comes just a week after the Federal Reserve voted to lower its benchmark borrowing rate by a quarter percentage point to a range of 4%-4.25%.
