It’s been a quiet week in terms of US economic data but there are some highlights coming up at the bottom of the hour:
- Initial jobless claims
- Durable goods orders
- Final Q2 GDP
- Advance goods trade balance
- Retail/wholesale inventories
Two weeks ago, initial jobless claims spiked higher and gave the market a brief fright that a wave of layoffs had arrived. It turned out it was a skew from unusual Texas claims behind the jump and they fell back to the recent range.
The Q2 GDP data is stale but the trade balance numbers are a key input in Q3 GDP and have been tough to pin down because of the tariffs.
Durable goods orders are one to watch but focus on non-defense capital goods orders ex-air, as usual. That’s forecast to fall 0.1%.