Sunday, May 19, 2013

QUICK OVERVIEW

  • (Bloomberg) Americans’ confidence in the economy climbed in May to the highest level in almost six years as rising real estate values and record stock prices boosted household wealth.
  •  The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment rose to 83.7, the highest since July 2007.
  • U.S. housing starts were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 853,000 last month. The level was 16.5% below the revised March estimate, but was 13.1% higher than the level in April 2012.
  • U.S. Leading indicators rose 0.6% last month after falling a revised 0.2% in March

  • Japans GDP rose by 0.9% in the three months to March, or 3.5 % YoY (Bloomberg) --

  • The U.S. budget deficit will shrink by the end of fiscal 2013 to $642 billion, the smallest shortfall in five years,
  • U.S. Household debt, as a proportion of income, declined from 130% in 2007 to 105 % at the end of 2012.

  • In the same period, Eurozone household debt has risen from 100% to almost 110%.

  • French GDP shrank 0.2% in the three months through March, following a revised 0.2% contraction in the previous quarter.


  • South Koreas Unemployment rate was 3.25 in April, down 0.3% point from a month earlier.

  • YoY German CPI rose by 1.2% last month.
  • The German economy, Europe’s largest, narrowly avoided recession expanding a measly 0.1% in Q1.

  • France, the second-largest economy in the euro zone, is back in recession - contracting 0.2%.

  • Greek unemployment hits new record high of 27% in February.

  • Advanced Cell Technology (ACTC) confirmed that the vision of a patient enrolled in a clinical investigation of the company’s retinal pigment epithelial cells derived from human embryonic stem cells has improved from 20/400 to 20/40 following treatment.

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