As reported today, Commercial Paper Outstanding stands at $959.3 Billion as of Dec 28th, 2012.
Commercial Paper Outstanding was at $2,200 billion at around the end of 2007 when the economy was in an expansion mode and is currently at less than half the previous level.
Commercial paper, used by corporations to meet short-term financial obligations is less that the levels in 2007, probably due to a slowdown in the economy.
Reported from the St. Louis Federal Reserve.
The October Case Shiller home price indices, released today, showed the 10-city index declined 1% to 154.1 and the 20-city index lost 1.2% settling at 140.3. Aside from the Phoenix market, which held steady, every other major real estate market declined slightly. Los Angeles declined the most, dropping 1.5% to 165.51. For more information, see our Home Price Index Report.
-From the St. Louis Federal Reserve
According to the property agency Homelink, China’s real estate market dropped 35% in November. According to the Los Angeles Times, China’s overall real estate market has declined 40% from its 2009 peak. As people start to demand discounts on recently-purchased homes and what appears to be two years worth of new housing stock comes into the market, home prices could decline much further in the coming months.
–from ForeignAffirs.com and The Los Angeles Times
The ten-year treasury constant maturity rate stands at 1.94% as of Dec 20th, 2011. This rate is currently at one of its lowest points since 1960.
These treasury rates may have intentionally been kept low to increase money supply.
- Reported from the St.Louis Federal Reserve
The National Association of Realtors revised its existing home sales data back to 2007 and the downturn is striking. Clearly, home sales were substantially lower after the housing crash than previously assumed. Contrasted with the extremely low housing starts of the past few years it seems that few people are buying or building homes. November housing starts were at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 685,000, a 9.3% increase over October. Existing home sales were at seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.42 million in November.
-From the National Association of Realtors and Calculated Risk
The NAHB homebuilder index increased to 21 this month from 19 in November. Any value below 50 is considered a negative outlook of home-building. The index is at its highest point since May of 2010. This is third month of increases in a row.
–From the NAHB
The Producer Price Index of Finished Goods Less Food And Energy stood at 179.3 as of November 1st, 2012 as per data released today.
The Producer Price Index has increased by 2.9% since a year ago when it stood at 174.2 in November 2010.
-Reported from the St. Louis Federal Reserve.
As reported today, the interest on required balances and excess balances for institutions with a one week maintenance period stood at 0.25% as of December 5th, 2011.
This rate has remained the same since December 2008, in line with an expansionary monetary policy.
-Reported from the St. Louis Federal Reserve.
Data from the Job Opening and Labor Turnover Survey, released today, show US job openings decreased 3.3% in October to 3.3 million. Total nonfarm hires decreased 2.7% to 4 million and total separations went down 3% to 3.9 million.
Most sectors reported slight job opening decreases in October. However, jobs with the federal government increased 33% to 72,000; finance and insurance increased 6.9% to 154,000; construction jobs increased 32.85% to 93,000.
For more information, see our Job Openings and Labor Turnover Report.
-From the St. Louis Federal Reserve and the Bureau of Labor Statistics
As reported today by the St. Louis Federal Reserve, the Effective Federal Funds Rate stands at 0.08% as of November 1st, 2011.
This interest rate is the rate at which depository institutions actively trade reserves held at the Fed. The rate is at its lowest since 1954. This rate has been intentionally kept low by the government so as to stimulate a weak economy.
-From the St. Louis Federal Reserve.
