Full text of U.S. Financial Data : May 3, 2001

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May 3, 2001

USFinancialData
THE WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS:
■ According to the advance report, real gross domestic product
(GDP) rose at a 2 percent annual rate during the first quarter.
Of significance, the report noted a $62.8 billion drop in private
inventory investment, which reduced first-quarter real GDP
growth by 2.5 percentage points. With nominal GDP rising at a
5.2 percent rate, the GDP price index, accordingly, advanced at a
3.2 percent rate, its largest increase in a year.
■ Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits totaled
421,000 in the week ending April 28. Measured on a four-week
moving average basis, claims totaled 404,500, up 26,750 from the
four weeks earlier and the highest average since early October 1992.
■ In March, the nominal value of factory orders increased $6.7 billion,
or 1.8 percent. During the first quarter, however, the value of
factory orders fell 2.8 percent, the third straight decline and the
largest in 10 years.
■ Measured in inflation-adjusted dollars, the value of private and
public construction spending totaled $726 billion in March, up
1.2 percent from February’s total, but down 0.8 percent from a
year earlier.
■ The Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) of manufacturing activity
registered 43.2 percent in April, little changed from the 43.1 percent
reading posted in March. A PMI figure above 50 percent is generally
consistent with expanding activity in the manufacturing sector.
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.