Annual Rate

WASHINGTON -- U.S. new-home construction was stronger than expected last month, and builders said they expect sales to stay strong.Housing starts fell 1.3 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.766 million units, the Commerce Department said yesterday. That beat the expected rate of 1.741 million, and was the third-highest rate since February 1987.Low unemployment, rising incomes and low interest rates led to record homebuying last year, a trend that unexpectedly continued at the start of this year.

America's economic boom -- already the second-longest on record -- shows no signs of flagging.Despite a decline in auto production and another sharp deterioration in the nation's trade balance, the U.S. economy grew at a surprisingly robust 4.5 percent annual rate during the first quarter of 1999, the government reported yesterday.That is the sort of heady pace usually associated with the first, not the ninth, year of an economic expansion. Moreover, most forecasters, including those at the Federal Reserve, had been expecting a visible slowdown from the previous quarter's frenetic 6 percent rate.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. sales of previously owned homes fell in April and consumer confidence edged lower this month, signs the economy may be throttling back from the heated pace it reached earlier this year.Existing home sales declined 2.5 percent to an annual rate of 4.77 million units last month, the National Association of Realtors reported yesterday.Also, the Conference Board said consumer confidence declined to 135.2 in May from 137.2 a month ago."The economy is cooling off in the second quarter," said Gary Thayer, senior economist at A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. in St. Louis.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. industrial production unexpectedly declined in September, while consumer prices rose at a 1.4 percent annual rate during the first nine months of the year, the lowest inflation rate in 11 years, it was reported yesterday.Output at factories, mines and utilities fell 0.3 percent last month after rising 1.6 percent in August, figures from the Federal Reserve showed.Last month's decline was the third in the last four months and completed the weakest quarterly performance since early 1991, when the economy was in recession.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. worker productivity accelerated in the third quarter, the government reported yesterday.The jump offset an increase in labor costs and gave Federal Reserve policy-makers room to cut interest rates again if they see a need to give financial markets a boost, analysts said.Productivity, which measures the time and effort needed to produce goods and services, rose at a 2.3 percent annual rate from July through September, after increasing at a 0.3 percent rate during the second quarter, Labor Department figures showed.

WASHINGTON -- Sales of new homes forged ahead in May to a record level against a backdrop of low interest rates and high consumer optimism that will power the industry through year's end.Sales of new single-family homes rose 0.3 percent in May, to 890,000 units at an annual rate, the Commerce Department said yesterday, breaking the record set in April. Analysts had expected a drop in May sales to an 877,000-unit annual rate."It's so good that it's scary," said Robert Toll, chairman and chief executive officer at luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers Inc. in Huntingdon Valley, Pa. "We're enjoying a fabulous market, and I would expect it's going to continue as long as the economy is supportive.

WASHINGTON -- Sales of new single-family homes rose to a record level in April and the U.S. index of leading economic indicators rose for the fourth month in a row, signs the economy will maintain its vigor in the months ahead."

WASHINGTON -- U.S. builders began construction on fewer houses in April, the Commerce Department said yesterday, in a sign that the economy is expected to cool from its first-quarter pace.Housing starts unexpectedly fell 2.3 percent last month to a 1.538 million-unit annual rate, the government said. In March, housing starts fell 2.5 percent to a 1.575 million rate.Analysts had expected an increase in starts last month. Even so, April marked the eighth straight month that starts exceeded 1.5 million at an annual rate -- the longest stretch at that pace since a run from May 1983 through November 1987.

Despite months of financial turmoil and heightened anxiety about contagion from the rest of the world, the U.S. economy is holding up far better than most experts expected.U.S. economic output grew at a surprisingly solid 3.3 percent pace this summer, the Commerce Department reported yesterday, as automakers scrambled to rebuild inventories after the General Motors strike and consumers spent money as fast as they earned it.The increase in the nation's gross domestic product for the July-September quarter was nearly twice the 1.8 percent annual rate of the spring, when the Asian crisis first hit U.S. industry.

WASHINGTON -- Producer prices registered their biggest drop in 4 1/2 years in January and builders continued to break ground on new housing at a rapid pace, signs the U.S. economy is poised for more growth without inflation."

Home sales declined sharply last month, and housing prices posted their deepest decline in four decades as a rapidly slowing economy discouraged many potential buyers from tip-toeing into the market. Sales of existing homes declined 8.6 percent last month, to a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.49 million, according to the National Association of Realtors, a trade association. The median price of a home fell 13 percent in November, to $181,300 from $208,000 a year ago. That was the lowest price since February 2004.

WASHINGTON - The job of the Federal Reserve and government policymakers got considerably more complicated yesterday when the Labor Department reported that consumer inflation is running at an annual rate of 5.6 percent, its highest level in 17 years. The Federal Reserve has been worried about inflation, or the rise in prices across the economy, for months. But it has left its benchmark federal funds rate at 2.0 percent since April, betting that the inflation pressures will ease when energy prices fall back.

WASHINGTON -- The slumping housing market dragged the U.S. economy in the third quarter into its weakest growth rate in more than three years, the government reported yesterday in its final reading of overall economic health before the Nov. 7 congressional elections. Inflation moderated, even without the impact of falling oil prices, but it remained higher than the Federal Reserve's "comfort zone" - keeping alive the possibility of future interest rate increases by the central bank. Many analysts said the relatively weak 1.6 percent growth in the third quarter represented the storm before the calm.

Providing further evidence of the U.S. economy's slowing momentum, federal officials revised yesterday first-quarter gross domestic product growth upward by a lower-than-expected amount. The slightly disappointing GDP data, combined with a separate report that showed a continuing decline in existing-home sales, may play a role in the Federal Reserve's pending decision on whether to pause its long series of interest-rate increases. The Fed's rate-setting committee next meets June 28 and 29. A month ago, the Commerce Department originally reported that the nation's gross domestic product, the measure of all goods and services produced in the U.S., expanded at a vigorous 4.8 percent rate in the first quarter, the strongest quarterly performance in 2 1/2 years.

Numbers-- Productivity dipped at an annual rate of 0.5 percent in the October-December quarter, while wages rose at a 3.3 percent pace, the U.S. said.

WASHINGTON - The Federal Reserve is expected to increase short-term interest rates today for the 10th consecutive time, raising questions about when this 15-month cycle of quarter-point increases will draw to a close. Many analysts say the Fed is all but certain to raise its benchmark federal funds rate, which banks charge each other for overnight loans, by the usual quarter of a percentage point to 3.5 percent. That drives up many consumer bank-loan rates, including the prime rate. The Fed has been nudging up short-term rates since June 2004 to keep a lid on inflation, which erodes consumer purchasing power.

WASHINGTON - The price of gasoline may be high, good jobs may be hard to find and the housing market may be frothy, but the U.S. economy just keeps rolling along. The Commerce Department said in a preliminary report yesterday that the economy grew at a solid 3.4 percent annual rate in the second quarter, down slightly from the first quarter's 3.8 percent, but still highly respectable. But what is next? The answer from most analysts is more of the same - steady but unspectacular growth amid swirling negative forces like slow global economic growth, rising oil prices and the uncertainty of terrorism.

WASHINGTON - U.S. new-home sales unexpectedly rose 0.2 percent last month to 1.226 million at an annual rate, the third-highest ever, as hiring improved and borrowing costs fell. Sales of single-family homes rose from a 1.224 million rate in September that was higher than first reported, the Commerce Department said in Washington. The median price jumped to $221,800 from $203,300 in September and is up 14 percent from a year ago. The United States gained the most jobs in seven months during October, and mortgage rates remain within a percentage point of an all-time low. Sales of new and existing homes will reach a record this year before higher borrowing costs start to reduce demand in 2005, according to a forecast from the National Association of Realtors.

A measure of U.S. mortgage applications rose last week to the highest level since the end of April, suggesting housing will keep fueling economic growth, a private group's survey found. The Mortgage Bankers Association's index increased 8.2 percent to 761.7 from the prior week's 703.9, reflecting more home purchases and refinancing. The reading was the highest since 780.9 in the week ended April 30. The index of home purchases jumped 12.6 percent last week to 496.5, the highest since the week ended July 2, helped by mortgage rates that are within a percentage point of last year's record low. "Rates are starting to move back down in the buyer's favor, but I think that is playing much less of a dominant role," said Mat Johnson, director of economics at ThinkEquity Partners in San Francisco.

The economy picked up speed in the third quarter to expand at a 3.7 percent annual rate, the government reported yesterday. Growth in the nation's output of goods and services exceeded the 3.3 percent rate registered in the second quarter - when the economy was held back by a surge in energy prices that took a bite out of American household budgets and dented consumer spending. Yet despite the third quarter's bounce, economists remained concerned that challenges from high oil prices and lackluster wage and job growth, too-weak exports and the end of corporate tax breaks could inhibit economic expansion in coming quarters.