Economic Roundup — Rise in Housing Starts Dismissed, Jobless Claims Rise, Philly Fed Falls Further

(RTTNews) - Thursday’s economic news flow was dominated by the release of a report showing that housing starts and building permits unexpectedly soared in June — data that was quickly dismissed having been goosed by a change in the building code in New York City.

The U.S. Department of Commerce revealed that housing starts climbed 9.1% in June from the previous month to reach an annual pace of 1.066 million units. This compared to a revised rate of 978,000 units in May. Economist were looking for housing starts to rise 960,000 in June.

Building permits, a measure of future home construction, climbed as well. The figure jumped 11.6% to an annual rate of 1.091 million units. In May, building permits showed a pace of 978,000 units. Economists were expecting a drop in permits to an annual rate of 960,000.

However, Commerce pointed out that much of the unexpected increase could be chalked up to a recent change to New York City’s building code, which boosted starts and permits for multifamily dwellings in the Northeast.

Economists have been scrutinizing housing data recently for signs that the beleaguered sector might finally be finding a bottom.

Meanwhile, the number of people filing first-time unemployment claims advanced last week, according to government statistics released Thursday. This represented a rebound from the previous week, which had seen a large decline.

The U.S. Department of Labor revealed that initial jobless claims came in at 366,000 for the week ended July 12. This was up 18,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 348,000.

The previous week saw a substantial drop in jobless claims, with many analysts blaming issues surrounding estimates made in the seasonal-adjustment process.

Signaling weakness in the manufacturing sector, the Philly Fed survey fell for an eighth straight month in July, coming in slightly worse than expected at -16.3 following a reading of -17.1 in June. Economists expected the Philly Fed survey to come in at -15.

The Philly Fed survey is one of several widely-followed regional reports on manufacturing monitored for early signals about the health of the economy.

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Posted in Categories: Economy, Forex, Releases, USA.