Markets in USA & Canada

摘要

The government's preferred form of tax cuts, weighted towards the wealthy and the corporate sector, is becoming an election issue, but it has certainly stimulated general growth and capital investment. Machine tool orders, a good physical - not to say steel-intensive - measure of capital investment in manufacturing, were 46.1 percent higher in the first five months this year compared with the same period last year. Capital investment is also showing up in construction contracts. In recent months residential contracts have slipped from their high level. In June sales of completed units were, as expected, lower than the record 1,337m dollars in May, but, at 1,326m dollars, remained high in historical terms. Meanwhile contracts for non-residential building -essentially for commercial buildings, - have been increasing in value sufficiently to raise the overall index. In May the Dodge Index of construction contracts rose by one point to 167 (against the average 1996 level =100).