The U.S. and its 11 negotiating partners – Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam – reached preliminary agreement on October 5, 2015, on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which would result in the world’s largest free-trade area, with a combined GDP of $27 trillion, equaling almost 40 percent of the global economy.
News / Brian Higgs
“Despite September’s decline, the U.S. LEI still suggests economic expansion will continue, although at a moderate pace,” said Ataman Ozyildirim, Director of Business Cycles and Growth Research at The Conference Board. “The recent weakness in stock markets, the manufacturing sector and housing permits was offset by gains in financial indicators, and to a lesser extent improvements in consumer expectations and initial claims for unemployment insurance. The U.S. economy is on track for moderate growth of about 2.5 percent in the coming quarters, despite the mixed global economic landscape.”
Institute for Supply Management
Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in October for the 34th consecutive month, and the overall economy grew for the 77th consecutive month, say the nation’s supply executives in the latest Manufacturing ISM® Report On Business®.
Cass Information Systems, Inc.
As expected, freight shipments and payments rose in September following two months of decline. Looking back over the last several years, September is often the final growth spurt for the year.
Import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to increase 3.3 percent this month over the same time last year as retailers make final preparations for the holiday season, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released today by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.
The trade ministers from the 12 participating TPP countries (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam) after five (5) days of round-the-clock negotiations in Atlanta agreed on Monday, Oct 5, 2015 to the largest regional trade agreement in history. The final sticking points in Atlanta centered on the length of market protections for an emerging class of pharmaceuticals, tariffs for dairy products and rules governing how to classify where automobiles are manufactured.
The TPP still faces months of debate in Congress even as presidential candidates, labor unions and liberal activists line up to oppose the agreement. On the other hand, Congress gave the president “fast track” trade promotion authority (TPA) in June, which guarantees that trade agreements will receive expedited consideration in Congress and a yes-or-no vote without amendments or filibusters.
The full text of the Agreement’s thirty (30) chapters will not be available for a month. Under the terms of the fast-track legislation, the president must wait 90 days after the TPP agreement is completed before he signs it and sends it to Congress for a vote, and the text of the accord must be made public for at least 60 of those days.
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“The U.S. LEI suggests economic growth will remain moderate into the New Year, with little reason to expect growth to pick up substantially,” said Ataman Ozyildirim, Director of Business Cycles and Growth Research at The Conference Board. “Average working hours and new orders in manufacturing have been weak, pointing to more slow growth in the industrial sector. However, employment, personal income and manufacturing and trade sales have all been rising, helping to offset the weakness in industrial production in recent months.” – www.conference-board.org
Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 142,000 in September, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in health care and information, while mining employment fell.
Institute for Supply Management
Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in September for the 33rd consecutive month, and the overall economy grew for the 76th consecutive month, say the nation’s supply executives in the latest Manufacturing ISM® Report On Business®.
American Trucking Associations
American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index declined 0.9% in August, following a revised increase of 3.1% during July. In August, the index equaled 134.2 (2000=100), down from 135.3 in July. The all-time high of 135.8 was reached in January 2015.