In the week ended August the 28th, US initial claims dropped by 6 000, from an up-wardly revised 478 000 to 472 000, slightly below the consensus estimate of 475 000. The four-week moving average fell from 488 000 to 485 500. Continuing claims, which are reported with an extra week lag, dropped by 23 000 for an up-wardly revised 4 479 000 to 4 456 000. Although initial claims dropped for the second consecutive month, they are still at relatively high levels and haven’t almost dropped since the start of the year, which indicates that claims are stagnating at relatively high levels.

In July, US pending home sales rose by 5.2% M/M, while a slight decline was ex-pected. Regional details indicate that the improvement was wide-spread as pending home sales rose in all regions led by the West (11.6% M/M) and Northeast (6.3% M/M). On a yearly basis, pending home sales are still down by 20.1% Y/Y (from 20.3% Y/Y). After the sharp decline when the tax credit expired, this outcome indicates that the housing market might start to stabilize again.

After two consecutive declines, US factory orders improved marginally in July. Fac-tory orders rose by 0.1% M/M, while an increase by 0.2% M/M was expected. The previous figure was upwardly revised from -1.2% M/M to -0.6% M/M. Looking at the details, non-durable shipments stayed flat, while durable orders rose by 0.4% M/M due to strength in transportation. The inventory/shipments ratio stayed unchanged from June at 1.26. The report provided however little new info as most was already known from the durable goods orders.


EMU: exports, investments and housholds drove Q2 growth

The preliminary estimate of euro zone Q2 GDP confirmed that the euro zone economy grew by 1.0% Q/Q, which was in line with expectations. Growth for the first three months of the year was upwardly revised to 0.3% Q/Q. More interesting was the first release of the details, which show growth was broad based. Both household consumption and domestic investments rose by 0.3% Q/Q, while change in invento-ries grew by 0.2% Q/Q and government consumption increased by 0.1% Q/Q. Also net-exports showed a significant positive contribution as exports rose by 1.7% Q/Q, while imports fell by 1.6% Q/Q. It will be difficult to extend that very strong per-formance in the coming quarters, although growth is expected to remain on track in the euro zone.