More positive figures came out of the US and joined yesterday’s good releases: durable goods orders rose by 0.7%, better than 0.2% that was expected for November. In addition, this came on top of October’s big upwards revision: a revision from flat to +1.1%.
Core durable goods orders rose by 1.6%, while a drop of 0.2% was predicted. Also here, the rise came on top of an upwards revision: from +1.5% to +1.9%.
Also personal income exceeded expectations by rising 0.6% instead of 0.3%. The previous figure was revised from 0% to 0.1%. Personal spending enjoyed an upwards revision from -0.2% to -0.1% and the fresh figure showed a rise of 0.4%, as expected.
The only figure that fell below predictions was the Core PCE Price Index, which remained flat instead of rising by 0.1%. Yet all in all, this was a positive bulk of economic data, just before Christmas. There is one more piece of data left: a revision of the consumer sentiment number from the University of Michigan.
However, these positive figures don’t cover for the general market gloom that caught the market after Plan B failed.
