The bond market took the GDP number positively. It had expected stronger growth and some people may now be reminded that the Fed will not be quick to raise rates. |
The decline in the prices paid component is good news. It looks as if we're seeing some moderation in pricing pressures, but not a significant drop. |
The drop in August is just a pullback from that earlier surge in spending. |
The employment component was just a tad lower than what we saw in November so it's still a healthy number. |
The Fed may be looking at oil prices as a reason for the economy to falter and not a reason for it to overheat, so they won't want to raise rates yet, |
The Fed may be looking at oil prices as a reason for the economy to falter and not a reason for it to overheat, so they won't want to raise rates yet. |
The Fed will overlook the strength in the economy before Katrina and focus more on getting the economy back on its feet and probably will hold policy steady until we see how the economy is actually dealing with the shock of lost jobs and high gasoline prices resulting from Katrina. |
The Fed will probably hold rates steady at a low level as long as they can. And I think as long as the unemployment rate is rising, they'll maintain a policy bias toward weakness. |
The Fed will probably not put a lot of emphasis on this data and instead will be looking more at the economy after the hurricane. |
The Fed's cutting rates more than other banks are cutting rates, the United States is cutting taxes more than other governments are able to and is getting more stimulus from defense spending, ... We won't see an upswing in the global economy until 2003. The United States will do better before then. |
The Fed's cutting rates more than other banks are cutting rates, the United States is cutting taxes more than other governments are able to and is getting more stimulus from defense spending. We won't see an upswing in the global economy until 2003. The United States will do better before then. |
The good news is that the inflation number was also revised down slightly but is still running higher than we saw a year or so ago, |
The good news is that what we've seen is an unchanged reading for the non-petroleum items ... so it doesn't look like we have a major inflation problem outside of oil, which is good for the Fed. |
The good news is that what we've seen is an unchanged reading for the nonpetroleum items and it looks like what we're still seeing is lower prices for many consumer items. |
The housing market is cooling off, but not too much, and inflation looks relatively benign. |