Joseph Coombs

The Chicago Federal Reserve Bank said that the U.S. economy continued to expand in January, growing ahead of its historic trend for the fifth straight month. With that said, the National Activity Index (NAI) edged down from 0.14 in December to 0.12 in January, and its three-month moving average dropped from 0.43 to 0.17 in this report.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said that consumer prices edged up by 0.1 percent in October, slowing from more robust growth in both August and September. The increases in the prior two months were led by significant growth in energy costs, which were up by 2.8 percent and 6.1 percent in those months, respectively, largely on negative impacts from recent hurricanes.

Manufacturers lost 1,000 workers in September, with the overall jobs numbers negatively impacted by damaging hurricanes in the month. In addition, the July and August data were revised lower, subtracting 32,000 from prior manufacturing job growth estimates. Despite the disappointing figures in September, the reduced hiring is likely a temporary phenomenon, with employment expectations continuing to be very strong overall.

The Census Bureau said that new factory orders fell for the third time in the past four months, down 3.3 percent in July. New orders of manufactured goods declined from $482.2 billion in June to $466.4 billion in July, a level not far from May’s $467.1 billion figure.