Full text of U.S. Financial Data : March 29, 2001

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March 29, 2001

USFinancialData
THE WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS:
s According to the final estimate, real GDP increased at a 1 percent
annual rate during the fourth quarter of 2000. The final estimate
was 0.1 percentage points less than the preliminary estimate and
0.4 percentage points lower than the advance estimate. Real GDP
increased 3.4 percent during 2000.
s During the fourth quarter, corporate profits—before taxes and
adjusted for depreciation and inventory valuation changes—declined
$55.6 billion, or 5.7 percent. According to the Bureau of Economic
Analysis, tobacco settlement payments by tobacco companies
reduced fourth-quarter profits by $14.2 billion (at an annual rate).
s Following a 7.3 percent drop in January, the value of new orders
to manufacturers for durable goods fell 0.2 percent in February.
Shipments of durable goods fell 0.3 percent in February, the fifth
consecutive decline. Factory orders and shipments are measured in
current dollars.
s New single-family homes sold at an annual rate of 911,000 units in
February. February’s sales pace was 2.4 percent less than January’s
and 7.6 percent below the number sold in December 2000. Still, new
home sales are up 0.7 percent from a year earlier.
s The Conference Board’s index of consumer confidence rose 7.1
percent in March, the first increase in six months. For the first
quarter, however, the index plunged 13.9 percent from its fourthquarter average, the largest decline since the third quarter of 1992.
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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