Durable Goods Orders/New Home Sales

More Hoover economy......NOT!

WASHINGTON — Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods rebounded sharply in October as demand for military aircraft shot up by the largest amount in more than five years.

The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that orders for durable goods rose by 3.4 per cent last month, erasing a 2 per cent decline in September that was blamed on disruptions from hurricanes Katrina and Rita and a machinists strike at aircraft giant Boeing.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department reported that sales of new single-family homes shot up by 13 percent last month, the biggest one-month gain in more than 12 years. The increase pushed sales to an all-time high 1.42 million units at a seasonally adjusted annual rate.

The increase in home sales confounded analysts who had been predicting that new home sales would decline by 1.8 percent, reflecting continued increases in mortgage rates. It was possible that the unexpected surge reflected a final rush by buyers to get into the market before mortgage rates climb higher.

Contrary to what the left and EM believe, it appears that the American people understand whats actually going on.

And on top of all that, this.....

U.S. Economy Expanded at a 4.3% Pace in Third Quarter

Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. economic growth rose at a 4.3 percent annual rate from July through September, the quickest since the first quarter of last year and evidence of the economy's resilience in the face of record energy costs.

The revised figure for gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced in the U.S., was higher than forecast and compares with a 3.8 percent pace initially estimated, the Commerce Department's figures showed today. Growth was 3.3 percent in the prior three months.

A second straight quarter of declining inventories will keep factories humming, providing fuel for an economy that's grown in excess of 3 percent since March 2003, the longest such streak since 1986. Consumer spending, construction and business investment were stronger than the government first estimated.

The left are deeply saddened.

UPDATE: U.S. productivity revised up to 4.7% Unit labor costs fall 1% in third quarter

The fresh numbers are a revision to month-old numbers that showed productivity rose at a 4.1% pace. Read the full report.

Unit labor costs - a gauge of wage-push inflationary pressures - fell at a 1% annual pace in the quarter, revised down from a 0.5% decrease. Unit labor costs are the costs paid to workers to produce one "unit" of output.

Economists expected productivity to be revised to a 4.5% annual pace, based on revisions to output and hours worked already reported. See Economic Calendar.

Productivity has increased 3.1% in the past year, about double the pace that prevailed in the 1970s through mid-1990s.

It's the best year-on-year growth in productivity in five quarters. Productivity increased at a 2.1% annual rate in the second quarter.

This won't do Bush's renewed efforts to make the tax cuts permanent any harm.