Census Bureau

Boston Federal Reserve President Susan Collins, who voted for both of the Fed's policy-rate reductions this year, said on Wednesday she sees a "relatively high bar" for additional easing in the near term, citing worries about elevated inflation.

The US January PPI was higher than market expectations. However, the decline in prices of some sub-items related to the core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) alleviated market concerns about inflation. After the release of the PPI data, US Treasury yields declined, and the market expects the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by 33 basis points this year. Although inflation data still shows resilience, the moderate growth of core indicators reduces the possibility of further interest rate hikes.

The latest data indicates that the total number of new homes sold in the United States in September was 738,000, exceeding expectations of 720,000 and the previous August figure of 709,000. The MoM increase in new home sales was 4.1%, compared to a previous decrease of 2.3%. The median price of new homes sold was $426,300.

Following a sharp recovery in August, housing starts dipped 0.5% in September to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 1.354 million units, compared with the expected 1.35 million. Single-family housing starts rose 2.7% to 1.03 million units, the highest level in five months, whereas multifamily starts dropped 9.4% to a four-month low.  

The U.S. Department of Commerce on Thursday reported that U.S. retail sales in September experienced a MoM increase of 0.4%, surpassing market expectations of 0.3%. This marks the third consecutive month of growth, reinforcing the perspective that the U.S. economy has maintained robust growth throughout most of the third quarter.

According to the latest figures, new home sales in the US for August came in at 716,000 units, down from the previous figure of 751,000. New home sales fell by 4.7% month-over-month, contrasting with a 10.6% increase in July. Due to builder price incentives, the median new home price has fallen for the seventh consecutive month, dropping 4.6% from a year ago to $420,600.

U.S. retail sales rose 0.1% from the previous month in August, beating market expectations for a 0.2% decrease, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce on Tuesday. In addition, July's month-over-month retail sales were revised upward to 1.1%, suggesting that the U.S. economy remains on solid ground as the third quarter progresses. 

Affected by a decline in single-family units and weaker demand, US housing starts in July were only 1,238,000 units, down 6.8 percent from June and well below market expectations of 1,330,000 units. It dropped to the lowest level since May 2020 in the early days of the pandemic.

U.S. retail sales rose 1 percent MoM in July, the largest increase since February 2023, far exceeding market expectations of 0.3 percent. Core retail sales rose 0.4 percent MoM, also above expectations. The increase suggests that consumers remain resilient even in the face of high prices and rising borrowing costs.