Week in Review: May 30-June 3
This week was absolutely loaded with economic data. Monday was Memorial Day, so we’re skipping straight to Tuesday and, obviously, wearing white head to toe (that was Zack’s comment, I, Anirban, only wear purple). Summer sartorial jokes aside, the rest of the commentary is mine.
Tuesday
S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index
This release pertains to March and indicates that home prices simply soared, up 20.6% from March 2021. March was two months (and a lifetime) ago, so this isn’t particularly informative given the runup in mortgage rates and that prices are probably falling in many communities at this point.
Federal Housing Finance Agency Home Price Index
This release pertains to the first quarter of 2022 and tells the same story—home prices increased 18.7% from Q1 2021 to Q1 2022. Nothing to see here. We knew the housing market was great. Thanks bunches. Let’s move along.
Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index
Consumer confidence slipped in May. Consumers feel a little worse about the present situation, but a little better about business conditions. According to the people who publish the index, this reading suggests that “growth did not contract further in Q2.” Great, but contraction remains possible. The Expectations Index weakened further, and consumers do no foresee the economy picking up steam during the months ahead.