Core CPI Matches Expectations

Oxford, MS 9/15/2011 (PennyPayDay) – The August reading of the headline CPI was up twice the forecast at +0.4% month on month, but the Core CPI matched the expectation with a monthly gain of 0.2%. Both annualized rates were slightly higher than the estimates at +3.8% and +2.0% respectively.

A couple of the key categories were both up 0.2% on the month; Service sector and Housing related prices both gained that much. Within the Housing report is the Owners’ Equivalent Rent of Residences, which was also +0.2% on the month. Energy prices were up 1.2% on the month, Food/Beverages gained 0.5% and Transportation was up 0.7%. Consumer goods prices were up 0.6% on the month, and these goods, excluding food and energy were +0.4%.

The weekly report on Initial Jobless Claims were up 11k from the week before to 428k for the week ended September 10; the result was 17k more than the estimate.

Continuing Claims were down 12k to 3.726 million for the week ended September 3.

The federal extended and emergency benefits programs were up 10k to 3.608 million for the week ended August 27.

The September reading of the Empire State Manufacturing Index was one point lower from the previous month to -8.82, missing the forecast for a slight improvement to -4.00. The details are a bit worse than the headline figure would indicate.

Prices Paid gained four points to 32.61
Prices Rec’d was six points higher at 8.70
New Orders fell a slight fraction to -8.00
Shipments tumbled about sixteen points to -12.88 (the lowest result since this component bottomed in March 2009.)
Inventories were down four points to -11.96
Number of Employees was off almost nine points to -5.43, lowest mark since September 2009

The Q2 reading of the Current Account Balance was a deficit of $118.0 billion, down slightly from the previous quarter.

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