News in end use

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 719,000 Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday March 27, 2021. An increase of 61,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The 4-week moving average was 719,000, a decrease of 10,500 from the previous week’s revised average.

Freddie Mac has released its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) for the week ending April 1, 2021. The PMMS reports that 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.18% with an average 0.7 point, up from last week when it averaged 3.17%.

According to the latest report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas (CG&C), Inc, a global outplacement and business and executive coaching firm, planned job cuts announced by U.S. based employers fell 86% in March to 30,603 from the 222,288 job cuts announced in March 2020, when the fallout from the COVID-19 lockdowns began to impact businesses across the country.

The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) has reported that their Pending Homes Sales Index (PHSI) — which is based on signed real estate contracts, not actual closings, for existing single-family homes, condos, and co-ops — declined for the second month in a row, failing -10.6% in February to a reading of 110.3.

Statistics Canada (StatsCan) is reporting that real gross domestic product (GDP) in Canada rose 0.7% in January, following 0.1% growth in December. This marks the ninth consecutive monthly increase, continuing to offset the steepest drops on record in Canadian economic activity observed in March and April 2020.

According to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Application Survey for the week ending March 26, 2021, the Market Composite Index — a measure of mortgage loan application volume — decreased -2.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased -2% compared with the previous week.

According to the March ADP® National Employment Report™, nonfarm private sector employment private sector employment increased by 517,000 jobs from February to March. The ADP National Employment Report is produced by the ADP Research Institute® in collaboration with Moody’s Analytics.

According to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index report, which covers all nine U.S. Census divisions, home prices gained 11.2% in January (on an annual basis), up from 10.4% increase in December 2020. The 10-City Composite annual increase came in at 10.9%, up from 9.9% in the previous month.

According to the latest Federal Housing Finance Agency’s House Price Index (FHFA HPI®), house prices rose nationwide in January, up 1.0% from the December 2020 reading. Year-over-year house prices have increased 12.0% (January 2020 to January 2021).

The Conference Board, a non-partisan, not-for-profit think tank founded in 1916, released today (2-23-21) their Consumer Confidence Index® (CCI), which surged in March to its highest reading in a year after a modest increase in February.