General: US economic data trickling in for January and February certainly look scary. Most economists now agree that the country is in recession already, and it is just a matter of how long and severe it will be. The sub prime loan crises, at first almost disdainfully dismissed by the Federal Reserve as a minor nuisance, has caused havoc in the financial sector, and nobody knows for sure where it will end. The Federal Reserve's hyper activity of cutting interest and discount rates has not yet had the desired effect of sufficient credit reaching the market, nor has it calmed fears of an impending meltdown.
GDP: +2.2% in 2007 (compared to +2.9% in 2006 and +0.6% in Q4)
Consumer Prices: +4.0% in February, still uncomfortably high
Industrial Production: +2.3% in January 2008 over January 2007 (+0.1% in January over December)
Purchasing Mangers Index (PMI): The Institute for Supply Management reported an index of 48.7 in February, down from 50.7 in January, and the direction is contracting.
Other indexes are as follows:
New Orders: 49.1 (from 49.5), contracting for the third consecutive month
Production: 50.7 (55.2), growing but slowing down
Employment: 46.0 (47.1) contracting for the fourth consecutive month
Inventories: 45.4 (49.1), contracting for the 22nd consecutive month
Customers' Inventories: 49.0 (49.5) direction ‘too low'
Producer Prices: +1.0% in January (-0.1% in December 2007)
Consumer Confidence Index: 75.0 in February -- a sharp decline from 87.9 in January
Unemployment: 4.8% in February
Trade Balance: -$819.2 at end of January for the latest 12 months
Housing Industry: Housing starts in January edged higher by 0.8% over December but fell 27.9% compared to January 2007. Building permits fell 3.0% compared to December and were down 33.1% compared to January 2007. Existing home sales slipped 0.4% in January compared to December and 23.4% compared to January 2007.
Automotive Production: 896,219 units were produced in February, or 1.3% less than in February 2007. In the first two months of 2008, 1,733,319 units were produced, or 1.8% less than last year.
Steel Production: 8.4 million mt in January, or 11.4% more than last year
Currency: US$1 = 0.65 Euro as of March 12 (US$1 = 0.76 last year -- a decline of 14.5%)