02 Feb 2007

Posted at 15:24h in The Friday Brief by
The strength of the U.S. economy continues to confound skeptics as well as optimists. The government released it’s first of three estimates on the overall growth of the economy on Wednesday. Even in the face of slumping housing gross domestic product climbed at a seasonally adjusted 3.5% annual rate in the fourth quarter, up from 2% in the third quarter. And even more noteworthy, it grew without inflation. The price index for personal-consumption expenditures posted its biggest drop in 52 years falling .8%. 

08 Sep 2006

Posted at 15:35h in The Friday Brief by
Everybody’s on hold; from the Space Shuttle Atlantis, to the Federal Reserve. While NASA hopes to launch today at 11:40 after a three year hold, we hope it will take considerably less time to re-launch the economy. The Fed has decided to hold further rate increases until it gets a better picture of the economy’s health. The Bank of Japan, the Bank of England and the Bank of Korea announced a similar strategy this week. Even OPEC is expected to hold oil production steady when they meet next week to see what happens. Doing so would help avoid a supply-driven run-up in prices. So the world watches the economic data to learn just how fast the US and the global economies are slowing.

12 Nov 2004

Posted at 15:37h in The Friday Brief by
The election is over, oil and gasoline prices are coming down, the stock market is going up, and the job market is improving.  These trends suggest continued improvement in the consumer side of our economy and this week’s economic numbers certainly bear that out.  The loudest and best indicator, the stock market, rose 1% this week and is up over 7% since the end of October.  All these factors suggest a better holiday season for retailers, particularly online retailers whose sales are up over 12% compared to this time last year.