Economics

Demand for US goods soar despite pandemic. Factory Orders Jump 6.4% in July, Durable Goods Soar 11.4%

The resurgence of American manufacturing from the depths of the pandemic continued in July.

U.S. factory orders rose 6.4 percent last month, the third consecutive increase, the Census Bureau reported Wednesday. Orders were up 6.4 percent in June. Economists had forecast a 6.0 percent gain, a slowdown from the month before.

Orders for durable goods, those expected to last three years or longer, rose 11.4 percent. That’s an increase from the 11.2 percent rise initially reported and brings manufacturing in-line with its pre-pandemic level of activity.

 

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US firms moving out of China. US Firms Move Supply Chains Out of China, Explore Options Closer to Home, with Latin and South America gaining significant traction in recent months, according to a survey by Qima.

WASHINGTON—The U.S.–China trade war and the COVID-19 pandemic have forced companies to reduce their excessive dependence on China as a single supplier.

U.S. brands have started to explore sourcing options closer to home, with Latin and South America gaining significant traction in recent months, according to a survey by Qima, a Hong Kong-based supply chain inspection company.

The survey conducted in July among more than 200 businesses around the world found that respondents are increasingly moving their sourcing away from China. Ninety-three percent of U.S. respondents reported that they had plans to further diversify their supply chains. Meanwhile, less than half of EU respondents had a similar strategy.

 

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 S&P 500 recovers all Covid-19 losses. S&P 500 Surges to New Record High, Wiping Out All CCP Virus Losses. The benchmark S&P 500 stock index, widely viewed as a proxy for the overall U.S. equities market, surged to close at 3,389.78 points on Tuesday, setting a new all-time high record and wiping out all its COVID-19-driven losses.

After plunging dramatically in late February into a bear market that hit bottom on March 23, the S&P 500 has now completed a full V-shaped recovery, rebounding some 55 percent off the pandemic lows and solidifying its new bull market run.

 

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Unemployment figures keep looking better. Weekly Jobless Claims Fall Below 1 Million; First Time Since March.

The number of Americans filing jobless claims fell below 1 million for the first time since the height of the pandemic lockdowns in March, when weekly filings surged to an all-time record high of nearly 7 million.

The number of workers filing initial unemployment claims dipped to 963,000 for the week ending Aug. 8, the Labor Department stated in a release on Aug. 13. This is a drop of 228,000 from the previous week and the first time in over 20 weeks that this number fell below a million.

Claims peaked at a record 6.867 million in mid-March, as the pandemic-driven lockdowns delivered a historic blow to the U.S. economy. In the second quarter of this year, U.S. economic output fell at its steepest pace since the Great Depression.

 

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