U.S. Producer Prices Dip
The headline Final Demand Producer Price Index eased 0.1% during July (+1.9% y/y) after a 0.1% uptick during June. A 0.1% rise in the index had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The PPI excluding food & energy also slipped 0.1% last month (+1.8% y/y) following a 0.1% rise. A 0.2% gain had been expected.
An updated measure of core producer price inflation is the overall index excluding food, energy and trade services. It remained unchanged last month (1.9% y/y) following a 0.2% increase.
Final demand goods prices slipped 0.1% (+2.3% y/y) following a 0.1% improvement. The price index excluding food & energy eased 0.1% (+1.9% y/y) following a 0.1% gain. (…)
China Car Sales Accelerated in July Passenger-car sales for the first seven months of 2017 were up 2% from a year earlier
Passenger-car sales were up 4.3% from a year earlier, accelerating from June’s 2.3% pace, the government-backed China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said on Friday. (…)
Total vehicle sales in China in July were up 6.2% from a year earlier, at 1.98 million, boosted once again by red-hot demand for commercial vehicles, whose sales rose 18% to 292,800 units. Total vehicle sales for January-July were up 4.1%. (…)
EARNINGS WATCH
Corporate America Is Posting the Biggest Profits in 13 Years
(…) While Europe was the source of earnings strength in the first three months of 2017, emerging-market sales were the driving force from April through June, said Jill Carey Hall, a U.S. equity strategist at Bank of America Corp. American companies with large overseas revenue beat estimates for sales and earnings twice as often as those with a domestic focus, she said. (…)
A weakening dollar also benefited U.S. companies such as Kellogg Co., which beat earnings estimates and said exchange rates will reduce 2017 profit by half as much as previously estimated. The dollar fell 6.4 percent against a basket of major world currencies in the first half of 2017. A weaker greenback helps overseas revenue by making American exports cheaper while also increasing the dollar value of foreign sales. (…)
Of the 451 companies in the S&P 500 that have so far reported second-quarter results, 68 percent have beaten analysts’ average estimates for revenue and 78 percent have topped per-share earnings expectations, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Earnings rose an average of 9.7 percent, while sales have climbed 5.5 percent.
The quarter is on pace to post the highest number of S&P 500 companies beating sales estimates in 13 years, according to an Aug. 7 note from Bank of America equity strategists. Earnings beats also are the highest since 2004, they said. (…)
More from Thomson Reuters:
- The surprise factor is +5.7%, particularly high in IT (+11.2%) and Utes (+10.9%).
- Blended Q2 EPS now at +11.9% on +5.1% revenue growth.
- Preannouncements for Q3 are 34 positive and 53 negative. Same time during Q2, 31 – 56; during Q3’16: 27 – 51.
- Q3e now +6.8%, Q4e + 12.2%.
- Trailing 12-m EPS: $125.93