Today in the US the Department of Commerce reported that building permits fell to 1.44 million in April. This is 3.0% lower than the revised March rate of 1,485,000 and 2.0% lower than the April 2023 rate of 1,470,000, while construction projects rose to 1.36 million, rising from 5.7% but well below the estimate of 1.4 million.
Import prices rose 0.9% in April on the back of rising food and fuel prices, indicating inflationary pressures are still at play, the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The rise beat Wall Street’s consensus estimate of 0.3% and came after an upwardly revised 0.6% surge in March. It was the largest monthly increase since March 2022. On a 12-month basis, import prices rose 1.1%, the largest upward movement since December 2022.
Export prices reported an increase of 0.5% on the month, compared to the revised +0.1% of the previous month and against the +0.4% of the consensus. Over the year, the figure shows a decrease of 1%. Net of agricultural products, export prices recorded +0.7% on the month and +0.1% on the year.
Activity in the manufacturing sector worsens in the Philadelphia area (United States). In May the index in question rose to +4.5 points from +15.5 in April, performing even worse than analysts’ expectations, which indicated a level of 7.7 points.
It must be said that an index above zero indicates that within the Philadelphia district there are more optimistic than pessimistic companies in the manufacturing sector, vice versa an index below zero indicates the prevalence of the number of pessimistic companies.
Among the components of the index, that of new orders collapsed to -7.9 points from +12.2 points, that of business conditions fell to +32.4 points from +34.3 and that of investment spending (capex) rose to 20.10 from 20.
PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
