Negative Economic Data

Construction spending for October declined 0.9%. Wall

Street was seeking a 0.4 increase. September's change from August was

revised from +0.5% to -0.3%. Nominal private construction spending was down 1% from

September and down 1.8% YoY. Public construction spending was down 0.2% from

September but up 10.2% YoY. Construction spending has now declined on a quarter to

quarter basis four quarters in a row and on a YoY quarterly basis five consecutive quarters.

This pattern was last seen in Q1 2008. Also, October 2019 real (inflation adjusted)

construction spending is 25% below its peak level in the last housing/mortgage bubble.