Mortgage rates remained relatively unchanged last week but continued trending near record-breaking lows. Pending home sales fell for the second month in a row. Construction spending increased. Mortgage purchase application submissions rose while refinance submissions decreased. The ADP employment report showed the smallest increase of private-sector jobs in four months. New jobless claims ped for the first time in three weeks and continuing claims ped as well. Nonfarm, private, and manufacturing payrolls all increased at a slower rate than expected. The unemployment rate and the participation rate decreased. Average hourly earnings increased marginally while the average workweek remained unchanged.

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• In October, pending home sales ped 1.1% after a 2.2% decline in September. However, pending home sales are still up 20% annually.

• Construction spending rose 1.3% in October at a seasonally adjusted, annual rate of $1.44 trillion. In September, spending was revised to a 0.5% decline instead of a 0.3% gain. Residential spending rose 2.9% in October, non-residential spending was unchanged, and public spending increased 1%.

• For the week ending 11/27, mortgage application submissions had a composite decrease of 0.6%. Though the purchase index rose 9%, the refinance index ped 5%. Annually, however, the number of refinance application submissions was up 102%.

• Private sector hiring slowed again in November, adding only 307,000 new jobs compared to October’s 404,000. Large companies added just 58,000 jobs to their payrolls, while mid-sized companies added 139,000 jobs, and smaller businesses added 110,000 jobs.

• For the week ending 11/28, initial jobless claims fell to a seasonally adjusted level of 712,000. Continuing claims fell as well for the week ending 11/21, ping to a seasonally adjusted level of 5.52 million.

• In November, nonfarm jobs added 245,000 jobs to their payrolls – nearly half of the amount that was expected. Private payrolls increased by 344,000 jobs. Manufacturing payrolls added 27,000 jobs. The unemployment rate edged down to 6.7%. The participation rate also ped slightly – from 61.7% in October to 61.5% in November. The average hourly earnings in November had a 0.3% gain, though year-over-year they remain unchanged. The average workweek still stands at 34.8 hours, as expected.

• Consumer credit
• MBA applications
• Job openings
• Initial jobless claims
• Continuing jobless claims
• Consumer price index
• Consumer sentiment

WEEK OF DECEMBER 7, 2020