Full text of U.S. Financial Data : May 23, 2002

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May 23, 2002

USFinancialData
THE WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS:
■ In April, new orders for manufactured durable goods rose $1.9
billion, or 1.1 percent, the fifth consecutive increase. Durable goods
orders for March were revised up from a 0.5 percent decline to a
0.2 percent rise. New orders for computers and related products
rose 2.5 percent in April, the largest increase in six months. Through
the first four months of 2002, the value of durable goods orders
are up 4.9 percent; over the same period in 2001, by contrast, new
orders had declined 8.5 percent. Since the March release, recall,
new orders, shipments, and inventories exclude semiconductors.
■ Initial (first-time) claims for state unemployment insurance benefits
totaled 416,000 for the week ending May 18. The four-week moving
average totaled 420,000, which was down 2,750 from the previous
week and down 34,000 from four weeks earlier. The number of
continuing claims for unemployment benefits totaled 3,870,000 in
the week ending May 11, which was an increase of 29,000 from
the previous week. The four-week moving average of continuing
claims totaled 3,806,750, up 45,000 from the preceding week and
up 94,750 from four weeks earlier.
■ The Conference Board reported that the index of leading economic
indicators fell 0.4 percent in April, the first decline since September
2001.
■ In April, the federal government posted a $67.2 billion budget
surplus, which was down $122.6 billion from a year earlier. Federal
receipts, fiscal year-to-date (October 2001 to April 2002), are
running $138 billion below the same period last year, while outlays
are running $93 billion above.
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
St. Louis. For more information on data, please call (314) 444-8590. To be added to the mailing
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Information in this publication is also included in the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) data base
on the internet at www.stls.frb.org/fred.