Full text of U.S. Financial Data : November 4, 1999

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November 4, 1999

USFinancialData
THE WEEK'S HIGHLIGHTS:
The index of leading economic indicators fell 0.1 percent in
September, as six of the 10 components registered declines. For
the third quarter, however, the leading index increased 0.5 percent,
the 17th consecutive quarterly increase.
Following gains of 2.5 percent in July and 1.3 percent in August,
new orders for manufactured goods fell 0.9 percent in September.
After rising just 0.2 percent during the second quarter, factory
orders rose 3.9 percent during the third quarter. Orders for
nondefense capital goods rose even more, 7.2 percent.
Paced by a 3-percent rise in public construction outlays, real
construction spending rose 0.4 percent in September. Private
construction spending, however, fell 0.5 percent, as residential
outlays dropped 0.2 percent and nonresidential spending fell
0.5 percent. Total construction spending declined 5.2 percent at
an annual rate during the third quarter and declined 0.1 percent
from four quarters earlier.
New home sales were at an annual rate of 811,000 units in September,
down 12.8 percent from August and reflected the slowest sales pace
in 21 months.
The Purchasing Manager’s diffusion index of manufacturing activity
measured 56.6 percent in October, 1.2 percentage points below
September’s reading. The prices paid index, however, rose 1.8
percentage points to 69.4 percent, its highest reading since May
1995 and up 98.3 percent from a year earlier.
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) 444-8808 or (314) 444-8809.
Information in this publication is also included in the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) electronic
bulletin board at (314) 621-1824 or internet World Wide Web server at www.stls.frb.org/fred.