Week in Review: Nov 28-Dec 2

Home Prices, Job Openings, and (yes) Inflation

This post covers more than 20 different indicators/topics, so no need for an intro.

Monday

China Protests

Protests in China over their zero-covid policy will probably have a lot of economic impacts, but it’s not clear to me exactly what those impacts will be. If the result here is an easing of their covid restrictions, that would benefit companies with large manufacturing presences in China (like Apple). In the meantime, it seems like this will have some pretty negative impacts, at least on the Chinese economy. There’s a bit more on this under the Links of the Week below.

TSA Checkpoint Travel Numbers

TSA check ins (the number of people flying) over the week of Thanksgiving were 5.7% higher than the same week in 2021 but still about 5.3% below 2019 levels. Holiday travel is returning to normal, but it’s not there just yet.

Tuesday

Home Prices

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index shows home prices fell about 0.8% in September, while the FHFA U.S. House Price Index had home prices up 0.1% for the month. These two measures are more aligned on the annual change, showing year-over-year increases of 10.6% and 11.0%, respectively. I have no idea what accounts for the difference, but the upshot is clear: home prices are up a lot over the past year (and since the start of the pandemic) but have generally stopped rising.

Conference Board Consumer Confidence

This measure of how consumers feel about the economy fell for the second straight month in November and is down to about the same level as in 2017. That’s a little surprising; the economy wasn’t bad in 2017, and anecdotally it feels like consumers are less confident than they were five years ago.

Wednesday

Gas Prices