According to American Chemistry Council (ACC) Weekly Chemistry & Economic Trends report on February 10, 2023, the number of new jobless claims rose by 13,000 to 196,000 during the week ending February 4. Continuing claims increased by 38,000 to 1,688,000 million, and the insured unemployment rate for the week ending January 28 was up by 0.1 percentage point to 1.2%.
The U.S. trade deficit increased in December by 10.5% to $67.4 billion as imports rose 1.3% and exports fell 0.9%. Imports of goods increased notably in a few categories including consumer goods and automotive vehicles, while industrial supplies and materials were down. U.S. goods exports are down as the high dollar and economic deterioration abroad weaken demand. Leading this decline were industrial supplies and materials and consumer goods. Exports in foods, feeds, and beverages increased.
Consumer debt grew at the slowest pace in two years in December, up 0.2% (or 2.9% SAAR). Both revolving (i.e., credit cards) and non-revolving (i.e., auto and student loans) saw lower growth rates. Compared to a year ago, household debt levels (excluding mortgages) were 7.8% higher. As the cushion of excess pandemic savings has been worked down during the past year, increasingly consumers were turning to debt to finance consumer spending. December’s report suggests that uncertainty about the economy and higher borrowing costs are resulting in a more cautious approach to household borrowing.
At the wholesale level, sales were flat in December following a 1.4% decline in November. Higher sales of computer equipment, professional equipment, electrical equipment, hardware and farm goods offset lower sales of lumber, apparel, petroleum products, chemicals, and alcohol. Wholesale inventories edged slightly higher, up 0.1%, following a 0.9% gain in November. Sales were up 7.3% Y/Y while inventories were up 17.6% Y/Y. The inventories-to-sales ratio remained steady at 1.36 compared to November but was up from 1.21 in December 2021. Among the categories with the largest monthly increase in the inventories-to-sales ratio were automotive, lumber, machinery, apparel, chemicals, alcohol and miscellaneous durables and nondurables.
Global semiconductor sales fell by 4.4% in December to $43.4 billion. Sales were lower in all regions, with the largest declines in the Americas and China. Compared to last December, sales were off 14.7%. For all of 2022, global semiconductor sales were up 3.2% to a record $573.5 billion. As with many other manufacturing industries, strong growth at the beginning of 2022 was offset by weakness toward the end of the year. SIA notes that among the different segments, analog chips (i.e., used in vehicles), saw the highest annual growth.
