The global expansion has legs yet despite rising stresses

<p>Kia ora,</p><p>Welcome to Thursday’s Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand.</p><p>I'm David Chaston and this is the International edition from Interest.co.nz.</p><p>Today we lead with news overnight data has actually been quite positive, showing the global expansion isn't done yet.</p><p>The American logistics sector is still expanding fast. <a href="https://www.the-lmi.com/june-2022-logistics-managers-index.html" target="_blank"><strong>The June report</strong></a> shows that growth is rising at an increasing rate for inventory levels still which growth is increasing at a decreasing rate for inventory costs, warehouse utilisation, warehousing costs, and transportation capacity. It is still a very healthy rate of expansion, just not extreme like it was three months ago.</p><p>Even after adjusting for the short week ahead of their national holiday, American <a href="https://www.mba.org/news-and-research/newsroom/news/2022/07/06/mortgage-applications-decrease-in-latest-mba-weekly-survey" target="_blank"><strong>mortgage applications fell</strong></a> back rather sharply last week and this was despite a small rollback in mortgage interest rates.</p><p>The latest <a href="http://www.redbookresearch.com/" target="_blank"><strong>weekly survey for retail activity</strong></a> picked up last week from levels that were already quire buoyant. It was a gain that was better than expected.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.ismworld.org/supply-management-news-and-reports/reports/ism-report-on-business/services/june/" target="_blank"><strong>widely-watched American services PMI</strong></a> for June came in better than expected and only a trivial dip from May. If there is an issue with this, it is a slightly lower growth rate in new orders. The internationally-benchmarked version also <a href="https://www.pmi.spglobal.com/Public/Home/PressRelease/3452986ad2ac477eb93e80152561a0b0" target="_blank"><strong>reported</strong></a> weakness in new orders but otherwise came in be