Full text of U.S. Financial Data : October 10, 2002

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October 10, 2002

USFinancialData
THE WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS:
■ For the week ending Oct. 5, new claims for state unemployment
insurance benefits totaled 384,000, down 40,000 from the previous
week. Accordingly, the four-week moving average fell 12,250 to
412,250, the lowest total in four weeks.
■ In September, the index of U.S. import prices rose 0.7 percent, the
largest increase in five months. Prices of imported petroleum goods
rose 6 percent in September after rising 2.8 percent in August and
3.8 percent in July. Prices of nonpetroleum goods, by contrast, rose
0.2 percent in September after no net change between April and
August. Year-to-date, total import prices are up 4.5 percent, with
petroleum prices up 61.1 percent and nonpetroleum prices up only
0.3 percent.
■ Following a 0.7 percent rise in July, merchant wholesalers’ sales
rose 0.9 percent in August. The value of wholesalers’ inventories
rose 0.2 percent in August after rising 0.6 percent in July.
■ For the week ending Oct. 9, the U.S. trade-weighted exchange-rate
index (major currency index) was 101.4, up 0.4 percentage points
from the previous week. After falling 10.2 percent between the weeks
ending Jan. 30 and July 17, the value of the U.S. dollar has increased
3.4 percent (see back page).
■ In September, nonfarm payroll employment fell 43,000, the first
decline in five months. The index of aggregate hours, however, rose
0.4 percent in September, following a 0.3 percent gain in August.
The civilian unemployment rate fell 0.1 percentage points to 5.6
percent, its lowest rate in seven months.
All data are seasonally adjusted unless otherwise indicated.
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