Orders for U.S.-made factory goods fell back in July after two straight monthly gains, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.
Orders for factory goods fell 1.9% in July, after rising 0.9% in June and 4.2% in May, the government said. Read full report...
It was the biggest drop in factory orders since April 2004. Excluding transportation goods, orders were down 0.5%.
Orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft - so-called core factory orders - fell 4.1% in July, reversing a 4.9% increase in June. Shipments of core capital goods fell 0.5%.
Meanwhile, Edward Hugh, guest blogging at New Economist has this...
The FT notes that outstanding mortgage debt rose between June and July at the slowest rate in 3 years, and unsecured consumer credit rose more slowly than expected. On the back of this comes news that retail sales fell for the sixth consecutive month according to a CBI survey.
... and the Skeptical Speculator this:
Japan's recovery looks as though it is starting to sputter again. Bloomberg reports:
Japan's household spending fell for a third month in July, retail sales slumped and unemployment unexpectedly rose, suggesting a rebound in the world's second- largest economy is losing momentum.
Spending by households headed by a salaried worker dropped 3.5 percent from June, seasonally adjusted, the statistics bureau said today. Retail sales fell 2.2 percent in July, the trade ministry said. The jobless rate rose to 4.4 percent from 4.2 percent, as more people sought work.
In the midst of yet another major energy shock that may be getting worse, some of this should probably be expected. Nonetheless, U.S. consumers -- perhaps focusing on the trends and not the month-to-month drama -- have been taking it well. Again from MarketWatch:
Led by the best assessment of current conditions in nearly four years, U.S. consumer confidence bounced back in August, the Conference Board said Tuesday.
The consumer confidence index rose to 105.6 in August, reversing most of July's decline to 103.6, the private economic research group said...
In the Conference Board report, feelings about the current situation improved to their highest level since September 2001. The present situation index rose to 123.6 from 119.3.
The assessment of the labor market turned up, with more consumers saying jobs are plentiful than are saying jobs are hard to get, the first time since October 2001 that "plentiful" has "outnumbered hard to get."
The number of consumers saying conditions are "good" outnumbered those saying conditions are "bad" by nearly two-to-one, at 29.8% to 15.1%.
The expectations index, meanwhile, increased to 93.7 from 93.2.
Go figure.
UPDATE: The Capital Spectator accentuates the positive: The factory orders report wasn't as bad as many expected, and the consumer confidence report was quite a bit better. A caveat: Oil prices have risen by 8 percent since the confidence survey was taken. Environmental Economics has several links to blogger analysis of Katrina's effects on gas prices.