Forex Fundamentals Roundup - U.S. Consumer Spending slows, Jobless Claims up. Canadian GDP Grows 0.1% in November.

January 31, 2008 - Forex Economic News

U.S. Consumer Spending slows in December.

Newly released data by The U.S. Commerce Department today showed an increase in consumer spending in December by just 0.2 percent, the lowest spending increase since September 2006(-0.1%). Consumer spending had increased 1.0 percent in the month of November. The report also showed that personal incomes rose 0.5 percent in December after a rise of 0.3 percent in November. Personal consumption expenditures(PCE), a measure of inflation, rose 0.7 percent in December after a revised gain of 0.5 percent in November. PCE prices, excluding energy and food prices, was up 0.1 percent in December.

U.S. Jobless Claims up.

U.S. unemployment claims increased last week by 69,000 people to a seasonally adjusted total of 375,000 according to data released today by the U.S. Labor Department. A four week moving average of unemployment claims showed an increase of 10,250 workers to a rate of 325,750. Workers receiving unemployment benefits for more than one week or continuing claims increased by 47,000 to 2,716,000 in the week that ended January 19th, up from the week before which saw 2,669,000.

Canadian GDP Grows 0.1% in November.

The Canadian Gross Domestic Product grew by 0.1 percent in November 2007, according to a report by Statistics Canada released today. November's GDP, the measure of the output of goods and services, decreased by 0.1 percent compared with October's 0.2 percent growth following 0.1 percent growth in September. Canadian retail trade as well as Arts and Entertainment helped push the output of the services sector to a 0.2 percent increase while the production of goods dropped 0.2 percent in November's GDP. See the complete GDP report.

Tags: Canadian GDP, US Jobless Claims, US Spending------------------- Blog index