Economy in Brief

Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 254,000 (-7.6% y/y) in the week ended December 10 following an unrevised decline to 258,000 in the prior week. Expectations had been for 255,000 claims in the Action Economics Forecast [...]

Divergence strikes the Euro-Areas sector indices. While the EMU PMI headline is unchanged at an 11-month high the means to stay up is propped on some substantial divergence. The EMU-wide manufacturing index is on its highest level [...]

The consumer price index increased 0.2% (1.7% y/y) during November following an unrevised 0.4% October rise. The gain matched expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Prices excluding food & energy gained 0.2% (2.1% y/y) [...]

The consumer price index increased 0.2% (1.7% y/y) during November following an unrevised 0.4% October rise. The gain matched expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Prices excluding food & energy gained 0.2% (2.1% y/y) [...]

At today's meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the targeted fed funds rate was raised to between 0.50% and 0.75%, from 0.25% to 0.50%. It was the highest target since the end of 2008. The FOMC indicated that an improved [...]

It's a mixed bad for Euro-Area industrial output as output fell for the second month in a row. The October drop is a decline of only 0.1% and compares to a drop of 0.9% in September. In August IP had spurted by 0.9% and that gain [...]

Total business inventories declined 0.2% during October (+0.4% y/y) following no change in September, revised from a 0.1% increase. New data in this report showed that retail inventories declined 0.4% (+3.3% y/y) following no change. [...]

Industrial output declined 0.4% during November (-0.6% y/y) following a 0.1% October uptick, revised from no change. The latest reading disappointed expectations for a 0.2% decline in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Factory [...]