Tag Archive: Construction

2021-09-27

US stocks sold off last Monday due to fears over the potential – likely – failure of China Evergrande, a real estate developer that has suddenly discovered the perils of leverage. Well that and the perils of being in an industry not currently favored by Xi Jinping. He has declared that houses are for living in not speculating on and ordered the state controlled banks to lend accordingly.

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Monthly Macro Chart Review – March

2019-03-08

2019-03-08

We’re changing the format on our Macro updates, breaking the report into two parts. This is part one, a review of the data released the previous month with charts to highlight the ones we deem important. We’ll post another one next week that will be more commentary and the market based indicators we use to monitor recession risk.

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The Fate of Real Estate

2019-02-27

2019-02-27

NAR Inventory of Homes For Sale, NSA 2014-2019

For years, realtors have been waiting for more housing inventory. It had become an article of faith, what was restraining a full-blown recovery was the lack of units available. The level of resales like construction was up, but still way, way less than it was now fourteen years past the prior peak despite sufficient population growth to have absorbed the previous bubble’s overbuilding.

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Bi-Weekly Economic Review

2018-07-20

2018-07-20

This will be a fairly quick update as I just posted a Mid-Year Review yesterday that covers a lot of the same ground. There were, as you’ll see below, some fairly positive reports since the last update but the markets are not responding to the better data. Markets seem to be more focused on the trade wars and the potential fallout. I would also note that at least some of the recent strength in the data is related to the tariffs.

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Bi-Weekly Economic Review: Growth Expectations Break Out?

2018-05-22

by Marcelo Perez

2018-05-22

There are a lot of reasons why interest rates may have risen recently. The federal government is expected to post a larger deficit this year – and in future years – due to the tax cuts. Further exacerbating those concerns is the ongoing shrinkage of the Fed’s balance sheet. Increased supply and potentially decreased demand is not a recipe for higher prices. In addition, there is some fear that the ongoing trade disputes may impact foreign demand...

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Bi-Weekly Economic Review: One Down, Three To Go

2018-03-01

2018-03-01

We pay particular attention to broad based indicators of growth. The Chicago Fed National Activity Index and the Conference Board’s Leading Economic Indicators are examples. We watch them because we are mostly interested in identifying inflection points in the broad economy and aren’t as interested in the details. Why? Because, while bear markets do happen outside of recession, it is rare and unpredictable.

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New Home Sales (Predictably) Fall Out of the Boom, Too

2018-02-28

2018-02-28

US Housing Construction, Jan 1985 - Jan 2018

New home sales were down sharply again in January 2018. For the second straight month, the level of purchase activity fell substantially despite what are otherwise always described as robust or even booming economic conditions. Like the sales of existing homes, the sales of newly constructed units should be both moving upward as well as being significantly more than stuck at this low level.

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Bi-Weekly Economic Review: Gridlock & The Status Quo

2017-11-08

2017-11-08

The good news is that the economy just printed its second consecutive quarter of 3% growth, a feat not accomplished since Q2 and Q3 2014. The bad news is that the growth spurt in 2014 was better, quantitatively and qualitatively. Those two quarters produced gains of 4.6% and 5.2% (annualized) in GDP, much better than the most recent 3.1% and 3% prints of Q2 and Q3 2017.

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The Real Estate View For A Second Lost Decade

2017-09-29

2017-09-29

US Existing Home Sales, Jan 2011 - Jul 2017

The National Association of Realtor (NAR) reports today that sales of existing homes in the US were down 1.7% in August 2017 from July. At a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 5.35 million, that’s the lowest pace for resales since July 2016. It is yet another data point reflecting the almost certain end of “reflation” in the economic sense.

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Now Capex?

2017-09-09

2017-09-09

Total Construction Spending, Jan 1994 - 2017

Of all the high frequency data the Personal Savings Rate is probably the least reliable. It is subject to both regular and benchmark revisions that can change the estimates drastically one way or the other. One step up from that statistic is the figures for Construction Spending. The initial monthly estimates don’t survive very long, and lately they have been quite weak in the first run only to be revised sharply higher over subsequent months.

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Industrial Production Recovers in March: Strong Franc Digested?

2016-05-27

by Swiss Statistics

2016-05-27

The sector that got hit most by the sudden appreciation of the Swiss franc, was the industrial production. They must compete with Germany, that benefits of the weak euro. The newest data show that the industry sector has strongly recovered. This opens the question once again, if the Swiss franc is really overvalued? Certainly not against the dollar, other sectors like pharmaceuticals and chemicals export at lot to the United States.

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Swiss Economic Indicators, March 2013

2013-03-27

2013-03-27

GDP KOF Wages CPI PPI Trade Balance Consumption SECO Industrial Production Construction

Switzerland continues to see a robust economy, even if the leading KOF indicator fell to 0.99 after highs of 1.68 in September. On other side, real and nominal wages continue to increase. As opposed to the KOF value, the UBS consumption indicator is rising. This shows that the internal economy is able to balance … Continue...

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Swiss and German Economic Indicators, Update November 1

2012-11-01

2012-11-01

Swiss & German Economic Indicators, August 2012

Euro Crisis Has Affected Germany, Switzerland Still Immune Most Recent Events The Swiss SVME PMI has risen from 43.9 to 46.1. This PMI is dominated by machinery, metallurgical and electric equipment exporters organized in the Swissmem organization. As opposed to the chemical industry, they were not innovative enough to adapt to the stronger franc; but …

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Euro Crisis Has Affected Germany, Switzerland Still Immune

2012-10-26

2012-10-26

Swiss and German Economic Indicators, October 2012 Both Swiss and German economic indicators show continued signs of stability, but the German situation has become worse and might affect the Swiss. Especially low unemployment, rising real wages and strong trade balances are signs of robustness. Despite that, Germany’s industrial production is weaker than last year, …

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Economic Indicators: In Switzerland and Germany the Euro Crisis Seems to Be Far Away

2012-08-29