Tag Archives: Jobs

Consumer optimism on income growth remained fairly high in January, while expectations for home price gains in the next year fell slightly, according to survey results released Monday from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Employers nationwide added 257,000 new jobs last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said Friday. Economists projected a payroll increase of 230,000.

The University of Michigan/Thomson Reuters Index of Consumer Sentiment came to 98.1 in its final January gauge, the group conducting the survey reported. While down slightly from a mid-month reading of 98.2, the index is still higher than it's been in the last 11 years.

Freddie Mac's monthly Multi-Indicator Market Index (MiMi) improved 0.35 percent month-over-month in November to a reading of 74.7, the company reported Wednesday. A reading between 80 and 120 is considered to be a sign of a stable market.

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its monthly Consumer Confidence Index rose to 102.9 this month from an upwardly revised 93.1 in December. According to the group, January's reading was the highest since August 2007, when the index was at 105.6.

The Conference Board's Leading Economic Index (LEI), which gauges the near-term economic outlook based on a variety of indicators, increased 0.5 percent in December to 121.1, the group reported Friday. The increase fell between November's gain of 0.4 percent and October's larger 0.6 percent improvement.

Freddie Mac cited a number of positive opportunities for housing in 2015—but households and businesses should take advantage of them early, because some of them aren't expected to last.

A first-look reading of the University of Michigan/Thomson Reuters consumer confidence index shows the measure climbed to 98.2 as of mid-January, up nearly five points from a final December reading of 93.6 and from a consensus forecast of 94.1 among economists polled by Thomson Reuters.

Three of the five indicators in Trulia's quarterly housing barometer—existing-home sales, excluding distressed sales; home price level; and delinquency plus foreclosure rate—are all more than three-quarters of the way "back to normal" as of the end of 2014, according to the company.

The New York Federal Reserve's year-end Survey of Consumer Expectations showed little change between November and December, though there was a small pullback in Americans' financial expectations, according to results released Monday. The results mirror the latest National Housing Survey results released last week by Fannie Mae.