Full text of U.S. Financial Data : October 18, 2001

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October 18, 2001

USFinancialData
THE WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS:
■ For the week ending Oct. 13, initial claims for state unemployment
insurance benefits totaled 490,000. The four-week moving average
rose to 491,250, up 24,250 from the previous week’s total and its
highest level since the week ending April 6, 1991.
■ Following a 6.7 percent decline in August, starts of privately owned
residences rose 1.7 percent in September to 1,574,000 units (annual
rate). For the third quarter, however, housing starts averaged
1,594,000 units, down 1.8 percent from their second-quarter average
and the fourth decline in the past six quarters.
■ In September, the Board of Governors’ index of industrial production
fell 1 percent, the twelfth consecutive monthly decline. Output of
business equipment fell 2.3 percent in September and 3.5 percent
during the third quarter. The third-quarter decline in business
equipment production was the largest since the fourth quarter of
1982. The total industry capacity utilization rate measured 75.5
percent in September, down 0.9 percentage points from August and
its lowest level since June 1983.
■ Measured in current dollars, the book value of total business
inventories fell $1.1 billion, or $12.8 billion at an annual rate in
August. Business inventories fell at a $72.2 billion rate in July.
■ In September, the current dollar value of retail and food services
sales plunged 2.4 percent, the largest monthly decline since
January 1987.
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.