U.S., Canadian Metals Shipments Fell In December 2024

Connecting the Dots monitors all major economic announcements in the United States and Canada, but the Metals Service Center Institute also offers industrial metals industry-specific data products that provide much deeper analysis and insight. Visit MSCI’s website and click on industry data to learn more about our Metals Activity Report (MAR), Momentum Monitors, and Macroeconomic Current.

Meanwhile, here are the major economic headlines from the last week:

• MSCI’s MAR for December 2024 showed U.S. and Canadian steel and aluminum shipments declined from December 2023. Specifically, U.S. service center steel shipments were down 2.2 percent year-over-year while shipments of aluminum products fell five percent. Canadian service center steel shipments dropped 19.5 percent between December 2023 and December 2024 while shipments of aluminum products declined 13.9 percent.
• The Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index (LEI) for the United States fell 0.1 percent in December 2024 to 101.6. The LEI declined by 1.3 percent over the second half of 2024, slightly less than its 1.7 percent decline over the first half of the last year. Read the full report at this link.
• The Federal Reserve Bank of Canada’s manufacturing index held steady at -5 in January even though both durable and nondurable manufacturing activity declined slightly. The bank’s production reading fell from -6 to -9 while new orders increased from -16 to -6. Additionally, the future composite index ticked down from +17 to +15 in January as expectations for future production and new orders growth cooled.
• Retail sales in Canada were relatively unchanged in November 2024, calling in six of nine subsectors, including the food and beverage retail sector. Higher sales at motor vehicle and parts dealers and gasoline stations and fuel vendors largely offset declines in the remaining subsectors, however. Read the full report at this link.
• The number of people who applied for U.S. unemployment benefits for the first time stood at 223,000 during the week that ended Jan. 18, a figure that was up by 6,000 from the week before. Averaged over the past four weeks, first-time claims increased to 213,500. In all, nearly 1.899 million people claimed jobless benefits during the week that ended Jan. 11, the highest number for continuing claims since November 2021.
• In other economic news: the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index fell from 74.0 in December 2024 to 71.1 in January 2025; Canada’s consumer price index fell 0.4 percent from November 2024 to December 2024, but was up 1.8 percent year-over-year; and the number of new U.S. homes increased 2.2 percent from December 2024 to January 2025 and 9.3 percent from January 2024 to January 2025. Read that full report at this link.