US Economic Data Round-Up

ADP payroll data surprised to the upside today (215k vs 185k expected). It was the highest reading so far this year. Perhaps most encouragingly the gain was lead by small businesses.

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ISM Non-Manufacturing survey came in slightly below expectations (53.9 vs 55.5 expected). This indicates that the non-manufacturing survey is still growing but at a slightly slower rate than it was in the previous month. The approximate GDP-weighted combination of the manufacturing and non-manufacturing surveys implies the US continues on it's "muddle-through" growth trajectory.

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Two months of new home sales data was released due to the government shutdown in October. November's new home sales spiked 25% month-over-month to 444k homes. This puts new home sales back at levels seen throughout the first half of the year. This is positive especially in light of another disappointing mortgage application data point.

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