LAST WEEK

News & Commentary Weekly Highlights:

• Wall Street Journal: Economists Overwhelmingly Expect Fed to Raise Interest Rates in December (Thursday)
• Reuters: Fed’s Bullard Stretches Hawk Credentials with Worries About ‘Permazero’ Rates (Thursday)
• CNBC: OPEC Sees Oil Glut Shrinking in 2016 as Low Prices Curb Rival Output (Thursday)
• Reuters: China Officials Signal Concern about Flagging Global Trade (Tuesday)
• Market Watch: Fed’s Rosengren Sees Possible Bubble in Commercial Real Estate (Monday)

 

Top Economic Indicator Highlights:

Producer Price Index for Final Demand (PPI-FD, October)

• PPI-FD: -0.4%, Year/Year Change: -1.6%
• PPI-FD less food & energy: -0.3%, Year/Year change: 0.1%
• Noteworthy: Expectations were for a 0.2% gain this month rather than a decrease. The energy component remained flat for the month but is down 21.5% year-on-year. Producer prices for services were down 0.3% in October following an unexpected 0.4% decline in September.
• Series Detail: The PPI-FD is a collection of indexes that measures the average change in producer prices over time for domestically produced goods, services, and construction, from the perspective of the seller, whereas the consumer price index (CPI) measures price changes from the purchaser’s perspective.

 

THIS WEEK

Upcoming Economic Reports & Releases:

Major Indicators

• Consumer Price Index (8:30am, Tuesday)
• Industrial Production (9:15am, Tuesday)
• Housing Market Index (10am, Tuesday)
• Housing Starts (8:30am, Wednesday)
• Regional and State Employment Report (10am, Friday)

 

Chart of the Week:

The labor market conditions index (LMCI) is a creation of the Federal Reserve Board to assess changes across the labor market and is derived from 19 labor market indicators, including indicators of unemployment, underemployment, workweeks, wages, job vacancies, hiring, layoffs, quits, and consumer and business surveys. October’s better-than-expected payroll numbers helped to lift the LMCI index for the month, supporting the possibility of a fed funds target rate increase in December.