News in end use

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 861,000 Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday February 13, 2021 — an increase of 13,000 from the previous week’s revised level.

A closer look at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Producer Price Index (PPI) data for January, provided by the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), reveals that residential construction input prices increased 2.5% in January over December 2020. Year-over-year residential input prices increased 4.8%.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, overall household debt increased by $206 billion in Q4 of 2020 to $14.56 trillion. The primary driver was a dramatic increase in mortgage originations.

The U.S. Census Bureau has reported that privately‐owned housing starts in January were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 1,580,000. This is -6.0% below the revised December estimate of 1,680,000 and is -2.3% below the January 2020 rate.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today (2-17-21) that the Producer Price Index (PPI) for final demand, seasonally adjusted, increased 1.3% in January. January’s increase is the largest since the PPI began in December 2009.

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) reports that builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes rebounded 1-point in February, after two consecutive months of declines, to a reading of 84.

The latest Mortgage Banker Association’s (MBA) Forbearance and Call Survey reports that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 6 basis points from 5.35% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior week to 5.29% as of February 7, 2021.

According to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Application Survey, for the week ending February 12th, 2021, the Market Composite Index — a measure of mortgage loan application volume — decreased -5.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.

Statistic Canada is reporting that manufacturing sales rose 0.9% to $54.2 billion in December. Sales were up in 9 of 21 industries, led by the wood product, transportation equipment, and petroleum and coal product industries.

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) is reporting that national homes sales in Canada set another all-time record in January 2021. Month-over-month (M-O-M) (December 2020 – January 2021) homes sales in Canada increased by 2%.