The Federal Reserve held out for higher rates and highlighted its commitment to bring down the inflation to 2% target. Despite the Fed's aggressive action, the Fed is significantly lagging inflation for several months.
June retail sales rose 1% from the revised May sales and surged 8.4% from a year ago. Resilient consumers kept spending as gasoline prices briefly topped $5 a gallon and inflation stayed at 4-decade high.
Employers expanded payroll at a fast pace in June and jobless rate held at 3.6% for the fourth month in a row. The labor force participation rate, at 62.2%, and the employment-population ratio, at 59.9%, were little changed over the month.
The U.S. goods and services trade deficit edged lower in May but jumped from a year ago. The U.S. recorded the largest deficit with China, Germany, and Mexico.
Weekly jobless claims rose 4,000 to 236,000 for the week ending July 2. California and Puerto Rico reported the highest insured unemployment rates of 1.9% for the week ending June 18.
The Federal Reserve policy committee reiterated its commitment in bringing inflation down close to 2% and favored restrictive policy stance and future higher rate hikes.
Personal income and disposable personal income rose 0.5% and personal consumption expenditures increased 0.2% in May. Personal consumption expenditures index increased 6.3% on an annual basis.
Total industrial production increased 0.2% in May but manufacturing output declined 0.1%. The total production increased every month of the year so far.
