Full text of U.S. Financial Data : September 27, 2001

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September 27, 2001

USFinancialData
THE WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS:
■ In August, the value of new orders for manufactured durable goods
fell $0.6 billion, or 0.3 percent. Excluding transportation equipment,
which fell $1.1 billion, or 2.1 percent, the value of durable goods
orders rose 0.4 percent, the first increase since May. New orders for
computers and electronic goods jumped 1.6 percent in August after
falling 6.1 percent in July and 3.4 percent in June. Total durable
goods orders are down 11.9 percent from a year earlier.
■ Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 58,000 for the
week ending Sept. 22, more than offsetting the 44,000 decline seen
during the previous week. For the most recent four-week period,
initial unemployment claims averaged 422,000, the highest fourweek average since the week ending June 16.
■ In August, sales of new single-family homes sold at an annual rate
of 898,000, which was 0.6 percent higher than July’s sales rate and
7 percent higher than a year earlier. Sales of existing (previously
sold) homes were at an annual rate of 5,500,000 in August, up 5.8
percent from July’s pace. Existing home sales are up 5 percent from
a year earlier.
■ The Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators fell
0.3 percent in August, the first decline in five months. Meanwhile,
the organization’s index of consumer confidence dropped 16.4
percentage points in September, the largest one-month drop since
October 1990.

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
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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.