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May 2, 2002

USFinancialData
THE WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS:
■ New factory orders rose 0.4 percent in March, modestly more than
the 0.2 percent gain posted in February. Factory orders declined
0.3 percent in the first quarter, the smallest decline in a year and a
half. New orders for nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft, a
key barometer of business capital spending, fell 3.6 percent in
March, the largest decline in six months.
■ Following a gain of 0.4 percent in January and a gain of 0.4 percent
in February, real private construction spending rose 0.8 percent in
March. Real public construction spending, by contrast, fell 5.4
percent in March, the largest decline since February 2000.
■ The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) reported that its index
of manufacturing activity fell 1.7 percentage points in April to 53.9
percent. The ISM’s index remained above 50 percent for the third
consecutive month.
■ In April, the Conference Board’s index of consumer confidence
measured 108.8 (1985 = 100). Although the value in April was 1.9
percentage points less than in March, it was 7.6 percentage points
higher than the first-quarter average of 101.2.
■ During the first quarter, real GDP rose 5.8 percent at an annual
rate, the largest increase since the fourth quarter of 1999. After
falling at a 0.1 percent rate in the fourth quarter, the GDP price
index rose at a 0.8 percent rate in the first quarter. Excluding food
and energy prices, the GDP price index rose at a 1.1 percent rate
in the first quarter, modestly faster than the 0.4 percent gain seen
in the prior quarter.
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
list, please call (314) 444-8809.
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.