July retail sales likely were barely troubled by the Covid Delta wave; the risks to August are bigger...

...Mobility data suggest that retail footfall is declining in the hardest-hit Southeastern quadrant of the U.S.

Manufacturing output likely rebounded in July, but the rate of recovery in the sector is moderating.

The reopening spike in the core CPI has peaked, though food prices will keep rising strongly for a while.

The Delta variant continues to drive up Covid cases, but the rate of increase is slowing steadily.

People have responded to the surge by travelling less; airlines, restaurants, hotels all feeling the pain.

Tapering is inching closer, but talk of rate hikes is de-ferred unless and until labor market signals flash red.

The economy likely expanded at an 8.0% rate in Q2, led by consumption and business investment.

Jobless claims look set to disappoint again today, and look for a big drop in pending home sales..

Some of the near-real-time data are flattening; don't worry, it had to happen, and some will re-accelerate.

The recovery is still on track, though we'll be much happier once clarity emerges in the labor market.

We see hefty downside risk to June new home sales; forecasts ignore the plunge in mortgage demand.

We find ourselves at odds with a couple of ideas gaining currency among the commentariat, namely, that markets are becoming less worried about inflation risk, and that the rise in oil prices will materially slow the rate of U.S. economic growth.

The June auto sales numbers attracted very little attention last week, as the data came sandwiched between the ISM manufacturing survey and the payroll report. 

The Dallas Fed last week published a short blog post—seehere—focused on the predictive power of their trimmed mean PCE inflation measure. 

We have never taken much notice of the quits rate from the JOLTS report, on the grounds that it’s usually just a proxy for the unemployment rate, released with a lag and prone to odd jumps and dips which turn out not to be significant.

We're not sure what to make of the 692K increase in the ADP measure of private payrolls, reported yesterday.

Emerging evidence from the Homebase employment data suggests that the ending of federally-financed enhanced unemployment benefits in many states has not clearly pushed people back into the labor force, yet.

With half the June data now available, we're more confident now in calling the bottom for mortgage applications.