· Credit market debt owed by the financial sector zoomed at a 16.5% (11.2% y/y) annual rate which was the strongest rate of gain since early 2001. Gains at commercial banks (41.0% y/y), bank holding companies (23.2 y/y), savings institutions (-8.8% y/y) and credit unions (68.9% y/y) were well into double or triple digit rates of growth.

· Stable was consumer credit growth which held at an 8.2% (7.8% y/y) quarterly rate of growth. Households' obligations on home mortgages grew 7.3% (8.0% y/y) which was half the growth rates seen a few years back. Conversely, credit card debt rose sharply (5.3% y/y) and the quarterly growth rate of 10.3% was the quickest since 2004. Bank loans also surged.  

· The net worth of the US household sector last quarter improved to a record $58.604 trillion as the dollar gain in household sector assets, which totaled 72.8 trillion, outweighed by four times the growth of liabilities which total $14.1 trillion.

· Total assets of households and nonprofit organizations grew at a 4.9% rate (7.4 y/y). Households' ownership of real estate assets was much reduced to a 2.1% growth rate (4.3% y/y), the slowest rate of gain since 1993. That, however, was offset by a 6.4% (9.5% y/y) gain in financial assets led by a one-quarter (7.2% y/y) rise in the value of credit market instruments and a rise in the value of mutual fund share holdings (21.8% y/y). The value of money market shares rose by one third as assets were shifted to a safe haven (24.5% y/y).