U.S. Economic News
July 5, 2017
U.S. Economic Indicators
New factory orders for manufactured goods fell 0.8% in May following a 0.3% drop in April, but are up 4.8% on the year. New orders excluding transportation dipped 0.3% while new orders for nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft edged up 0.2%. Census Bureau Report
U.S. News
Greg Ip of the Wall Street Journal writes that the U.S. economy currently has all the preconditions necessary for a recession. Ip highlights factors such as a healed labor market, exceptionally high asset valuations, tightening monetary policy, and exceedingly low volatility as common precursors to economic downturns. WSJ
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Federal Reserve is expected in September to announce a move to begin shrinking its balance sheet. Experts expect the Fed to hold off on another rate hike until December in order to assess markets’ response to the unprecedented unloading of assets. WSJ
Neil Irwin of the New York Times writes that Americans’ outlook for the U.S. economy has soared after the November presidential election but actual economic activity has been tepid. Irwin argues that despite the sustained gains in almost every measure of consumer and business confidence actual spending and investment have been slowed by policy uncertainty and weak wage growth. NYT