Executive Summary
U.S. Economic and Regulatory Highlights
- Inflation eased in October to 3.2%, down from 3.7% in both September and August. The decrease was driven across most sectors of the economy:
– Rent inflation declined to 6.7% in October, the seventh consecutive monthly decline. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)
– Food inflation declined to 3.3%, the lowest level since June 2021. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)
– October energy prices were 4.5% below a year ago. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics) - Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, declined to 4.0% in October, the lowest since September 2021. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)
- Producer price inflation was 1.3% in October, easing from 2.2% in September. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)
- October retail sales decreased 0.1% from September, the first monthly decline since March. (Source: U.S. Census Bureau)
- GDP increased at an annual rate of 4.9% in Q3 2023, up from 2.1% last quarter and the highest rate since Q4 ’21.
(Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis) - October had 473K new business formations on a seasonally adjusted basis, down slightly from September but still well above pre-pandemic levels. (Source: U.S. Census Bureau)
- November Consumer sentiment was 60.4, down from 63.8 in October since May. (Source: University of Michigan)
- Small Business optimism was 90.7 in October, down from 90.8 in September and the lowest level since May. (Source: NFIB)
- In the week ending November 4, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims was 217K, down 3K from the prior week. The 4-week moving average was 212K, up slightly from the prior week and 5% higher than a year ago. (Source: U.S. Department of Labor)
- Fuel prices are down significantly from a year ago and have declining over the past month. (Source: AAA)
- The average 30-year mortgage rate was 7.50% for the week ending 11/09/23, the second consecutive weekly decrease but remaining close to the 23-year high of 7.79% reached at the end of October. (Source: FreddieMac)
That’s a quick take – Download the latest report.
