US personal income rose 0.1%, or USD 26.1B in June, better than expectation of -0.4% contraction. Personal spending rose 1.0%, or USD 155.4B, above expectation of 0.7%.

Headline PCE price index was unchanged at 4.0% yoy. Core PCE price index accelerated to 3.5% yoy, up from 3.4% yoy, but missed expectation of 3.7% yoy.

Full release here.

US PMI Manufacturing was finalized at 57.7 in December, down from November’s 583. Markit said output expansion was muted, as firms registered slower upturn in new orders. Rate of cost inflation remained marked despite easing to softest since June. Backlogs of work rose at slowest pace for ten months.

Siân Jones, Senior Economist at IHS Markit said:

“December saw another subdued increase in US manufacturing output as material shortages and supplier delays dragged on. Although some reprieve was seen as supply chains deteriorated to the smallest extent since May, the impact of substantially longer lead times for inputs thwarted firms’ ability to produce finished goods yet again.

“Adding to the sector’s challenges was an ebb in client demand from the highs seen earlier in 2021, with new orders rising at the slowest pace for a year, largely linked to a reluctance at customers to place orders before inventories were worked through. Alongside a slight pick-up in hiring, softer demand conditions contributed to the slowest rise in backlogs of work for ten months.

“While shortages remained significant, the end of the year brought with it some signs that cost pressures have eased. The uptick in input prices was the slowest for six months, and firms recorded softer increases in selling prices amid efforts to entice customer spending.”

Full release here.

US stocks closed higher overnight after Treasury secretary nominee Janet Yellen’s Senate confirmation hearing. “The world has changed,” she said. “In a very low interest-rate environment like we’re in, what we’re seeing is that even though the amount of debt relative to the economy has gone up, the interest burden hasn’t.”

She gave a strong node to President-elect Joe Biden’s fiscal package, to be unveiled next month. “The most important thing we can do is to defeat the pandemic, to provide relief to American people and to make long-term investments that make the economy grow and benefit future generations,” said Yellen.

Yellen described China as the most important strategic competitor with its “abusive, unfair and illegal practices.” She also said China is “guilty of horrendous human rights abuses” in response to a question on whether China had committed “genocide” in treating of Uyghurs.

In a last-minute proclamation, outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo determined China “has committed genocide against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang”, and “this genocide is ongoing”. Biden’s nominee for Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said in his confirmation hearing, “The forcing of men, women and children into concentration camps; trying to, in effect, re-educate them to be adherents to the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party, all of that speaks to an effort to commit genocide.”

US initial jobless claims dropped -29k to 348k in the week ending August 14, better than expectation of 362k. That’s also the lowest level since March 14, 2020. Four-week moving average of initial claims dropped -19k to 378k, lowest since March 14, 2020 too.

Continuing claims dropped -79k to 2820k in the week ending August 7, lowest since march 14, 2020. Four-week moving average of continuing claims dropped -111k to 2999k, lowest since March 21, 2020.

Full release here.