Full text of U.S. Financial Data : April 6, 2000

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April 6, 2000

USFinancialData
THE WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS:
■ A barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil closed at
$25.85 on Wednesday, April 5. This closing price was down
2.3 percent from a week earlier and 24.3 percent, or $8.28, lower
than its nearly 9 1/2 year-high posted on March 7. Measured from
a year earlier, crude oil prices are up 52.5 percent.
■ The spread between yields on 30-year U.S. Treasury securities and
three-month Treasury bills narrowed from an average of 123 basis
points for the week ending Jan. 21 to an average of -5 basis points
during the first three trading days of April. This yield curve
inversion last occurred in December of 1989.
■ After rising 0.8 percent during the previous three months, the
index of leading economic indicators fell 0.3 percent in February.
Eight of the index’s ten components declined in February.
■ Real private construction spending increased $7.7 billion, or
1.8 percent, in February, the largest increase since June 1998.
Real public construction spending, by contrast, fell 0.5 percent,
the first decline in eight months. Total construction spending
in February was up 2.3 percent from a year earlier.
■ Real personal consumption expenditures (PCE) rose 0.5 percent in
February, or 6.5 percent at an annual rate. Paced by a 4.1 percent
(not annualized) surge in purchases of new motor vehicles, consumer
spending on durable goods rose 1.7 percent in February. The PCE
implicit price deflator rose at a 5.2-percent annual rate in February,
and it is up 2.5 percent from a year earlier.
All data are seasonally adjusted unless otherwise indicated.
U.S. Financial Data is published weekly by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of
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Information in this publication is also included in the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) electronic
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