Economic data releases in the past week -- also, some weak retail sales and consumer spending data in past few months

New data on:
4/2/19 (today)  Durable Goods Orders
3/29/19        New Home Sales
3/28/19        Real GDP 4Q 2018 third update
3/26/19        Housing Starts
3/26/19        Case Shiller Home Prices

All are included in the full list 
of economic data releases here:
https://elblog2019.blogspot.com/




Additional economic data:

The Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank

has a GDPNow forecasting model

and the New York Fed has their

Nowcast model.

They both predict 
slow to mediocre 
Real GDP growth 
in 1Q 2019:

GDPNow =  +2.1% annual growth rate

(prediction dated April 1, 2019)

Nowcast = +1.3% annual growth rate

(Prediction dated March 29, 2019)

After close to ten years 

of economic growth 

- slow growth -- 

it makes sense to focus

on unexpected bad news, 

rather than being 

overoptimistic because

your stock investments 

are doing well !

The data below are not looking good:

Month over month change:

                                      Dec. 2018    Jan.  2019    Feb. 2019

Retail Sales                    ( -1.6%)          +0.7%         (-0.2%)

Consumer Spending     ( -0.6%)          +0.1%             tbd