Residential Construction Employment and Chemical Activity Continue Higher The US economy continues higher….the market will follow A little “did you know” from JP Morgan: On average the market experiences a -14.2% intra-year decline, but the market has still ended the year positive in 27 of the last 35 years. The point is that volatility is quite normal, and if anything we’ve become a bit spoiled by the lack of it over the last few years. Wesbury on durable Goods: A surprisingly strong report on new orders of durable goods shows the economy continues to plow on with no signs of weakening. Orders for durable goods rose 2% in July, exceeding even the highest estimate of all 76 economists who were surveyed, and were revised higher for previous months. A big chunk of the gain in July came from the very volatile transportation sector, specifically a 4% increase in autos, which brought the overall transportation sector up 4.7% for the month. The good news was that orders excluding transportation still rose 0.6%. Some pessimists may point out that orders are down 19.6% from a year ago, but this is due to a statistical anomaly. In July of last year, transportation orders soared as Boeing took in a massive order for 324 new planes. Excluding the volatile transportation sector, orders are still down 2.5% from a year ago. But this too doesn’t tell the whole story, as the decline is due almost... More