Full text of U.S. Financial Data : May 31, 2001

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May 31, 2001

USFinancialData
THE WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS:
■ First-time claims for state unemployment insurance benefits totaled
419,000 for the week ending May 26. Averaged over the most recent
four-week period, initial claims totaled 402,500. Measured on a
four-week moving average basis, claims are up 39.5 percent from a
year earlier.
■ In April, real personal consumption expenditures rose 0.2 percent, or
1.9 percent at an annual rate. Year-to-date, real consumer spending
has increased at a 2.4 percent rate, roughly half the 4.7 percent
rate of increase seen during the first four months of 2000. Real
disposable personal income (DPI) increased 0.1 percent in April,
after posting gains of 0.5 percent in March and 0.3 percent in
February. Real DPI is up 2.2 percent from a year earlier.
■ After falling 7 percentage points in April, the Conference Board’s
index of consumer confidence rose 5.6 percentage points in May.
Measured from a year earlier, consumer confidence has tumbled
20.2 percent.
■ The value of manufacturers’ new orders for durable goods fell 5.1
percent in April, after increasing 6.2 percent during February and
March. New orders have declined 7.8 percent from a year earlier.
■ Real GDP is now estimated to have increased at a 1.3 percent
annual rate during the first quarter, 0.7 percentage points less than
the advance estimate released in late April. After falling 5.7 percent
during the fourth quarter of 2000, corporate profits fell 2.3 percent
during the first 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.