by Gerardo Del Real
Outsider Club
U.S. housing starts rose 6.6% in April — they were expected to come in at 4.6% — to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.172 million units, the Commerce Department said Tuesday May 17.
The U.S. April consumer price index came in at up 0.4% — the highest since February of 2013 when it was up 0.6%. The figure was expected to be up 0.3%, and up 0.2% excluding food and energy.
Manufacturing in April was stronger than expected. There was also a 0.3% gain in output at factories, which followed a 0.3% decrease the prior month, a Federal Reserve report showed Tuesday.
Total industrial production, which also includes mines and utilities, climbed a larger-than-forecast 0.7%, boosted by the strongest advance in electricity demand in more than nine years.