July 2018

June 2018 Treasury Budget

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America’s fiscal shortfall improved in June 2018 according to the Treasury Department.  America’s budget deficit improved to $74.9 billion from $146.8 billion in May.  Details within the report make the improvement look even better as there were substantial outlays that are not paid every month in this iteration. 

 

June 2018 Producer Price Index

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Prices paid by producers and wholesalers continued edging higher in June according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Their Producer Prince Index (PPI), which measures final demand, rose 0.3 percent as the first half of 2018 ended.  This increase follows upticks of 0.1 percent and 0.5 percent in April and May respectively.  Year-over-year, the PPI gained 3.4 percent, the largest

June 2018 National Federation of Independent Business

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Small business confidence remains high in the U.S. according to the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).  Their optimism index gave back just 0.6 points in June after reaching its second highest reading ever in May. Despite the monthly setback, this reading of 107.2 is the sixth best tally in the survey’s 45-year history. 

May 2018 Trade Deficit

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America’s trading shortfall improved in May 2018 according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.  Our nation’s goods and services deficit dropped $3.0 billion to $43.1 billion from April’s downwardly revised tally (originally $46.2 billion).  This improvement put the monthly trade gap at its narrowest reading since October 2016.

 

Reading Pie Crumbs

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Clairvoyance is not part of the Atlas investment algorithm.  Endeavoring just to interpret current data is challenge enough.  In fact, since various agencies and institutions revise past data with some regularity, even seeing the past sometimes proves difficult.  Nevertheless, we do have a crystal ball and dusted it off at the most recent pie party to make some bold predictions.&