Here is another example of data manipulation: The Labor Department reported that initial jobless claims edged up to 465,000 from the previous week’s revised figured of 453,000. However these are not real but adjusted figures. Unadjusted, totaled 379,369 in the week ending Sept. 18, an increase of 37,705 from the previous week. There were 437,543 initial claims in the comparable week in 2009. So there were 58,174 fewer initial jobless claims this reporting period than in the same reporting period a year ago. Makes you wonder, why don’t they use the unadjusted numbers. We all know how to average. Economists had expected jobless claims to come in unchanged compared to the 450,000 originally reported for the previous week. Twenty-seven states recorded unemployment rate increases, 13 states registered rate decreases, and 10 states and the District of Columbia ad no rate change The West reported the highest regional unemployment rate in August, 10.8 percent, while the Northeast recorded the lowest rate, 8.8 per-cent.
charts by RTTNews
The National Association of Realtors Existing-home sales rose in August following a big correction in July. They put on a nice spin. But for July existing home sales dropped 27.2% month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.83 million units from a downwardly revised 5.26 million unit-rate in June. Economists expected a less severe decline to 4.72 million units. Inventories measured in months of supply rose to 12.5 months from 8.9 months in June. The median price of an existing home fell 0.2% month-over-month.
FHFA Reports U.S. House Price Index Falls 0.5 Percent in July The previously reported 0.3 percent decline in June was revised to a 1.2 percent decline. The unusually large revision mainly reflects the addition of new data from late June that show considerably weaker prices than earlier in the month. For the 12 months ending in July, U.S. prices fell 3.3 percent. The U.S. index is 13.8 percent below its April 2007 peak.
The leading indicators index increased 0.3 percent in August, more than the 0.1 percent economists before the report by the New York-based group.
The US dollar has again been declining lately as this chart from a couple of days ago shows that for the year to date the dollar has performed about as well as the S&P 500.
This week’s strongest and weakest sectors.
This week’s major indices were all up with the Russell 2000 leading the way up 3% and only the dollar was down.
Here is the performance of the major indices since mid-January
