Labor/Economy

In a normal first week of the month, Wednesday’s Automated Data Processing report on employment would be a way station on route to more official numbers on jobs from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and probably not a good predictor of the government numbers.

Day One of the federal government shut down, 2013 version, passed without too much incident on Tuesday. As expected, certain functions of the U.S. government came to a halt. Also as expected, Congress didn’t act to resolve the situation.

Congress was unable to agree on legislation authorizing money for the continued operations of the federal government by midnight on Monday and, as has been expected for some days now, a shutdown began today, the beginning of the government’s fiscal year.

According to the National Association of Realtors, the Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings (but not closings), dropped to 107.7 in August from a downwardly revised 109.4 in July.

The Census Bureau and HUD reported that sales of new single-family houses in August 2013 were at an annualized rate of 421,000 units. That’s 7.9 percent higher than the revised July rate of 390,000 units and is 12.6 percent above the August 2012 total.

S&P Dow Jones Indices released the latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, which track U.S. home prices through the end of July (not August), and they showed continued increases.