The labor market appears solid heading into 2006, which could have bolstered the confidence reading in January.
"Stephen Stanley" is a Canada/Canadian singer-songwriter associated with the band The Lowest of the Low. Stanley also performs as a solo artist, sometimes in collaboration with violinist Carla MacNeil.
Stanley and MacNeil recorded a cover of Rheostatics' "Take Me in Your Hand" for the 2007 tribute album The Secret Sessions. Stanley also released a solo album, That Thin, Wild Mercury, in 2003.
Stanley and MacNeil released an album titled Non Barking Dog under the band name "Too Many Sisters" in November 2008.
More Stephen Stanley on Wikipedia.The labor market is very healthy, with both jobs and wages advancing at a nice clip. This means that households will have plenty of cash to support consumption in 2006.
Ironically, with all this strength, the net effect of these data on the fourth-quarter GDP number could be flat or possibly even marginally negative. This is because durable goods inventories were flat, which should more or less offset the positive influence of the stronger-than-anticipated December shipments figures. For first quarter GDP, however, these data are unambiguously positive.
The factory sector appears to have begun the year on a solid note, no doubt bolstered by the surge in new orders seen at the end of last year.
We expect productivity growth to moderate, and compensation gains and unit labor costs to pick up. Just another piece of the puzzle that points toward more Fed tightening than the market currently expects.
When both exports and imports are surging, that is generally a sign that the economy is in very good shape. These figures strike me as yet another sign that activity entering 2006 was on a solid footing, not about to slow down substantially, as the consensus believes.
There is no signal that the Fed is nearing the end (of its tightening cycle), and that's been the one consistent thing.
January auto sales were clearly much better than expected. We are on a pace to see a month-to-month increase in the seasonally adjusted sales pace, perhaps to around 17.7 million units or so.
We have been quite skeptical throughout January because data tend to be erratic around the holidays and the turn of the year.
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