Spotlight on the economy: Claims, CPI and Philly Fed highlight data flood

[thenews]

Spotlight on the economy: Claims, CPI and Philly Fed highlight data flood August 14, 2013, 4:28 PM

You could be forgiven for ignoring Thursday’s wave of data and listening to Wal_Mart's earning call instead. But for those who prefer more quantifiable assessments of the U.S. economy, the session will pack a punch, including two of the indicators that Goldman Sachs economists find are most useful for predicting the future.

There’s so much data that it may be more useful just to list:

• 8:30 am Weekly jobless claims 8/10 Forecast: 333,000 Last:333,000
• 8:30 am Consumer price index July Forecast: 0.2% Last: 0.5%
• 8:30 am Core CPI July Forecast: 0.2% Last: 0.2%
• 8:30 am Empire state index Aug. Forecast: 9.5 Last: 9.5
• 9:15 am Industrial production July Forecast: 0.2% Last: 0.3%
• 9:15 am Capacity utilization July Forecast: 77.9% Last: 77.8%
• 10 am Home builders index Aug. Forecast: 55 Last: 57
• 10 am Philly Fed Forecast: Aug. 15.0 Last: 19.8

The weekly claims and the Philly Fed series are the two indicators the Goldman economists see as most useful.

The CPI report also will be of note given how weak producer prices were in the same month. A particularly weak showing — even though PCE inflation and not the CPI measure is what the Federal Reserve puts most reliance on — could give the central bank pause in determining whether to taper its bond purchase program in September.

source here