Advisors on This Week’s Show Kyle Tetting Art Rothschild Steve Giles (with Max Hoelzl and Joel Dresang engineered byJason Scuglik) Week in Review (Nov. 17-21, 2025) Significant Economic Indicators & Reports Monday The Commerce Department reported a 0.2% rise in construction spending in August, in its first release of economic data since the six-week federal government shutdown, which ended Nov. 12. Spending on housing construction accounted for 43% of the total and rose 0.8% from July. Total construction spending was 2.1% lower than its May 2024 peak. Compared to August 2024, overall construction spending fell 1.6% and dropped 1.8% for housing. Tuesday The Federal Reserve reported that it could not release its scheduled report on industrial production and capacity utilization because it relied on data from other agencies that had been affected by the federal government shutdown. Factory orders rose in August for the first time in three months, according to the Commerce Department. Led by orders for commercial aircraft, demand for manufactured goods was up 3.3% from August 2024. Excluding the volatile transportation category, orders rose 0.1% from July and gained 0.6% from the year before. Core capital goods orders, a proxy for business investments, advanced 0.4% for the month and 2.3% from August 2024. Wednesday The U.S. trade deficit narrowed by 23.8% in August to $59.6 billion. The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported the gap shrank because of a 0.1% rise in exports and a 5.1% decline in imports. Travel services led the slight gain in exports while sales abroad of U.S.-made goods fell, led by computers and pharmaceuticals. Through the first eight months of 2025, the trade gap widened by 25% from the year before, with a 5.1% gain in exports and a 9.2% advance in exports. Trade deficits detract from economic growth, as measured by the gross domestic product. Housing construction data on building permits and housing starts were not available as scheduled from the Commerce Department. Thursday The four-week moving average for initial unemployment insurance claims declined for the third time in four weeks as the Labor Department resumed reports following the six-week government shutdown. Initial claims were 38% below the all-time average and 8% above where they were just before the COVID-19 pandemic. Levels of unemployment among those covered by insurance were at four-year highs. Total claims rose slightly to just under 1.8 million, up nearly 7% from the same