LAST WEEK

News & Commentary Weekly Highlights:

• Wall Street Journal: This Is the Largest Job-Growth Streak Ever—Kind Of (Friday)
• Market Watch: Fed Could Hike as Early as April, Economists Say After Jobs Report (Friday)
• Bloomberg Business: Fed Experts Deliver the Bad News: Productivity Slump Is for Real (Friday)
• Wall Street Journal: All Clear on Recession Risk? Not Yet (Friday)
• Market Watch: 7 Big Risks Are Now Plaguing the U.S. and Global Economies (Wednesday)

 

Top Economic Indicator Highlights:

International Trade Balance (January)

• Trade Deficit: $45.7 billion, M/M change: +2.2%, Y/Y change: +4.8%
• Imports:  $222.1 billion, M/M change: -1.3%, Y/Y change: -4.5%
• Exports: $176.5 billion, M/M change: -2.1%, Y/Y change: -6.6%
• Noteworthy: The U.S. international trade deficit in goods and services increased $1 billion from $44.7 billion in December. Bloomberg suggests weakness in global business investment based on the decline of exports and imports of capital goods, though imports of autos continue to rise.

 

THIS WEEK

Upcoming Economic Reports & Releases:

Major Indicators

• Labor Market Conditions Index (10am, Monday)
• Consumer Credit (3pm, Monday)
• Wholesale Trade (10am, Wednesday)
• Treasury Budget (2pm, Thursday)

 

Chart of the Week:

 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ annual Consumer Expenditure Survey reveals the income and consumption patterns of Americans over the course of a year, with underlying detail, including by demographic and income groups. As shown in the chart above, when adjusting by the average number of people per consumer unit in each before-tax income decile, the disparities between deciles diminish. For example, the top income decile has an average of 3.2 people per consumer unit, much more than the lowest decile, which averages 1.7 people per consumer unit (BLS states the terms consumer unit, family, and household are often used interchangeably for convenience. However, the proper technical term for purposes of the Consumer Expenditure Survey is consumer unit).