U.S. Economic News
June 23, 2017
U.S. Economic Indicators
New home sales increased 2.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 610,000 in May, and are 8.9% above the May 2016 rate. The median sales price rose to $345,800 and the inventory of new homes dropped to 5.3 months at the current sales rate. Census Bureau Report
U.S. News
Limited job prospects for disabled workers may indicate that the U.S. labor market is still recovering from the recession. Last year, 4.9 million disabled Americans, age 16 to 64, were either employed or looking for work, which is well below the 5.2 million in the workforce in 2009. WSJ
In a press release yesterday, the Federal Reserve announced that US banks passed their first round of stress tests for the year. The tests, meant to determine whether 34 banks would be able to withstand severe global recession, indicated that the banking sector could endure $493 billion in losses and emerge from a market crash “well capitalized.” FT