Fundamentals Indicate Sluggish Growth.

Initial Jobless Claims (week ended 5/16/2015)

– New Claims (seasonally adjusted) 274,000. Previous was 264,000
– New Claims unadjusted, totaled 242,794 a decrease of 88 from previous.
– 4-week Moving Average   266,250. Previous was 261,750

Layoffs remain low but represent less that 20% of the dynamics of the entire Jobs Market.

Chicago Federal Reserve National Activity Index (April 2015)

– Index Level -0.15. Previous was -0.36.

Folks who have been thinking that the weakness of the prior months  would lead to a gain in April (expectation was +0.10) were mistaken.

PMI Manufacturing Index Flash (May 2015)

– Index Level 53.8. Previous was 54.2.

Again less that expected.

Philadelphia Federal Reserve Business Outlook Survey (May 2015)

– General Business Conditions Index  6.7. Previous was 7.5.

This is a regional survey index.

Existing Home Sales (April 2015)

– Existing Home Sales seasonally adjusted, annualized 5,040,000. Previous was 5,210,000.

This is seriously disappointing.  We had that nice uptick in Housing Starts reported earlier this week but that may have simply been a produce of bad weather delaying Starts.

Leading Indicators (April 2015)

– LEI +0.7%. Previous was +0.4%.

The gain in LEI may be another product of the weather produced blip in Housing Starts. The analysis from The Conference Board which produces this Index suggested as much.