greenbooks · June 16, 1964
Greenbook/Tealbook
Prefatory Note
The attached document represents the most complete and accurate version available
based on original copies culled from the files of the FOMC Secretariat at the Board
of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. This electronic document was created
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versions text-searchable. 2 Though a stringent quality assurance process was
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Please note that some material may have been redacted from this document if that
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1
In some cases, original copies needed to be photocopied before being scanned into electronic
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2
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Content last modified 6/05/2009.
CONFIDENTIAL (FR)
SUPPLEMENT
CURRENT ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL CONDITIONS
Prepared for the
Federal Open Market Committee
By the Staff
Board of Governors
of the Federal Reserve System
June 12, 1964.
SUPPLEMENTAL NOTES
The Domestic Economy
Revisions in April data and later quantity data for May,
suggest the index of industrial production (not yet calculated) may
be above the 129 level mentioned in the staff report of June 10.
Seasonally adjusted retail sales in May were up 1.4 per cent
from April, after some hesitation in March and April, and topped their
February peak.
Data for the first week in June indicate that this
month has started at about the advanced May level.
The May rise was concentrated at nondurable goods stores,
where sales were up about 2 per cent.
Gains were particularly large
at apparel, drug, and general merchandise stores.
goods stores were up fractionally from April.
Sales at durable
Furniture and appliances,
which have maintained a steady advance for the past several months,
declined sharply in May,
Nonfarm payroll employment, seasonally adjusted, rose in May by
only 40,000.
earlier.
At 58.5 million, it was 1.4 million higher than a year
Employment increased during the month by 28,000 in nondurable
goods industries, mostly in apparel; but was little changed in durable
goods industries as small gains in most metals industries were offset
by a decline in transportation equipment.
Finance, service and State
and local government employment continued to rise.
Construction
employment declined 40,000 reflecting in part the effects of scattered
strikes.
level.
In trade, employment was down slightly from the peak April
The workweek in manufacturing again averaged 40.7 hours,
continuing the relative stability at high levels which began in
September last year.
Average hourly earnings increased one cent to
$2.53, reflecting the 0.2 hour rise to 3 hours in overtime worked
at premium pay.
Average weekly earnings increased $0.90 to nearly
$103.00 and were above the December 1963 peak for the first time this
year.
(Confidential until release at 2:30 p.m., Tuesday, June 16.)
The Domestic Financial Situation
Total credit at city banks increased over $700 million in the
week ending June 3, compared with declines or much smaller increases
in the corresponding week of other recent years.
This year's expansion,
however, was apparently associated largely with the $1 billion Treasury
bill issue delivered in early June.
Loans to Government security
dealers rose almost $300 million and bank holdings of U. S. Government
securities increased $270 million, almost entirely in bills.
Business
loans declined $100 million, about in line with reductions for this
period in past years.
Capital markets.
The tone of the corporate bond market was
buoyed by the quick sell-out of this week's key $150 million offering
of GMAC debentures.
Reflecting this improvement, underwriters bid
aggressively for smaller bond offerings, and the average yield on new
issues (adjusted to an Aaa basis) declined 1 basis point to 4.44 per cent.
The average yield on outstanding high-grade State and local government
bonds, on the other hand, rose 2 basis points to 3.10 per cent.
yields increased, investor demand picked up.
home mortgages continued unchanged in May.
As
Interest rates on new
-3Stock market.
At noon on Friday, the Dow-Jones average of
industrial stock prices, had nearly recovered the declines that began
with the sharp market break on June 4.
The broader measure of stock
prices provided by the Standard and Poor's composite index of 500
stocks at the close Thursday showed prices were still 1.8 per cent below
their mid-May peak.
Daily trading volume declined further this week,
averaging only 4.1 million shares through Thursday.
International Developments
Preliminary data show a U. S. payments deficit on regular
transactions of $125 million for the month of May.
The deficit for the
first five months of 1964 now appears to be at a seasonally adjusted
annual rate of about $2 billion.
Cite this document
APA
Federal Reserve (1964, June 16). Greenbook/Tealbook. Greenbooks, Federal Reserve. https://whenthefedspeaks.com/doc/greenbook_19640617_part1
BibTeX
@misc{wtfs_greenbook_19640617_part1,
author = {Federal Reserve},
title = {Greenbook/Tealbook},
year = {1964},
month = {Jun},
howpublished = {Greenbooks, Federal Reserve},
url = {https://whenthefedspeaks.com/doc/greenbook_19640617_part1},
note = {Retrieved via When the Fed Speaks corpus}
}