Any way you slice it, the report suggests homebuilding is holding up quite well, and it will continue to be strong until we see a significant rise in mortgage rates. There's no evidence that a peak has been reached in the housing market. |
Consumers are benefiting from the decline in retail gasoline prices and that should continue going forward. The job market does seem to be improving, or at least getting back into a more normal pace after the hurricanes. |
Even though foreign economies are strengthening, it won't be enough strength to reverse the trend in trade, and we're likely to see further deterioration. |
First-quarter growth is going to be very strong, so the question now is whether that strength is going to continue. These reports suggest that at least certain parts of the economy aren't going to continue accelerating, with housing being the most notable example. |
I think that they are likely to make some small modification to the forward-looking language ... saying something like 'further policy firming might be needed' rather than 'may be needed'. |
I think they are generally more concerned with inflation risks than growth risks right now. I think the contention will be that it is worth trying to make extra-sure that inflation doesn't rise. |
Inventories will be rebuilt for some months to come and that will bolster economic growth. |
It looks like a temporary move lower. It appears that imports were affected by the timing of holidays in Asia. |
It's definitely a labor market that's generating enough jobs to bring down the unemployment rate over time. That process was interrupted by the hurricanes and appears to be resuming. |
Labor market weakness isn't spreading from the hurricane- affected areas to other areas of the country. We are starting to see hurricane-related claims drop off, and more important for the economic outlook, jobless claims excluding the hurricane effects remain low. |
One way to interpret it is that sellers may have only been willing to sell if they got the prices they were expecting. Fewer got that, so there were less actual transactions as prices continued to rise. |
The change from 'likely' to 'may be' takes away any strong signal they'll be raising rates. |
The consumer was in fairly good shape before Hurricane Katrina. Sales were strong virtually across the board. |
The economy is continuing to run at a strong pace in the third quarter. The underlying trend in durable goods orders is positive and the housing market continues to run strong. |
The labor market data continue to indicate strong job growth. We expect the economy to grow more strongly in the near term. |