Monthly data for August started out with another positive jobs report, with another decline in the unemployment rate. Nominal wage growth was positive in line with the past several years (but real wage growth for nonsupervisory workers still looks unable to break out north of 2% YoY). Motor vehicle sales had their best month in nearly a decade. Both ISM manufacturing and services indexes declined slightly, with manufacturing still positive and services still strongly positive.
July data included positive construction spending and positive factory orders.