The flow of good news regained its upward momentum in December. Even though good only just edged out bad 3-2 in the last inning of the month, the good news index (GNI) finished the month at 73.8, up from 60.5 in October and November. The 3-month average also regained some lift and rose to 65.0 as the year ends.
Perhaps the best news at the end of December came on the regulation and policy side, rather than from the numbers, however. The Federal Reserve began to build the tools needed to gather back some of the monetary growth spawned by the emergency action drills of the past couple of years. Perhaps other agencies are similarly taking steps to prepare themselves for unwinding the various rescues, bailouts, and stimulus packages.
After-tax profits for retail corporations with assets greater than $50 million averaged 2.3 cents per dollar of sales for the third quarter 2009, down 0.3 cents from the second quarter. Declining profit margins are bad news.
Sales of new one-family houses in November 2009 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate 11.3 percent below the October’s. Bad, but not really news; progress is still sketchy in the housing-related markets.
New orders for manufactured durable goods increased 0.2 percent in November. Good. Thin gruel perhaps, but good nonetheless.
Real gross domestic product increased at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the third quarter. Good, even if less good that earlier estimates.
Personal income increased 0.4 percent and disposable personal income increased 0.5 percent in November. Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased 0.5 percent. All good.
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