Full text of U.S. Financial Data : September 21, 2000

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September 21, 2000

USFinancialData
THE WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS:
■ The spot price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil closed at $37.20
a barrel on Sept. 20, the highest closing price since Oct. 16, 1990.
Spot WTI prices are up 53.2 percent from a year earlier.
■ The nominal U.S. goods and services trade deficit totaled $31.9 billion
in July, up $2 billion from June and $7.2 billion from a year earlier.
Exports of goods and services fell 1.5 percent in July, after increasing
4.8 percent in June. Imports rose 0.6 percent in July, following a
3.6 percent rise in June. Measured from a year earlier, exports
have risen 13.5 percent and imports have grown 17.2 percent.
■ Housing starts rose 0.3 percent in August to 1.531 million units
(annualized), the first increase in four months. Housing starts
during the July-August period are down 4.8 percent from the
second-quarter rate of 1.605 million units.
■ The consumer price index (CPI) fell at a 0.7 percent annual rate in
August, the first decline since April 1986. Excluding energy prices,
however, which fell at a 29.9 percent rate in August, the CPI rose
at a 2 percent rate. Year-to-date, consumer prices have advanced
at a 3.4 percent rate, while the CPI excluding energy prices is up
at a 2.6 percent rate.
■ After rising at a 0.2 percent annual rate in July, the index of industrial
production rose at a 4 percent rate in August. Manufacturing output,
though, only rose at a 1.1 percent rate in August after posting a
1 percent rate of gain in July.
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.