Economy in Brief

Nonfarm payrolls grew 287,000 during June, a figure boosted as roughly 35,000 Verizon workers returned from strike. Employment increased 11,000 in May, revised from 38,000 and April's gain was revised to 144,000 from 123,000. [...]

The outplacement firm of Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that job cut announcements during June rose to 38,536 (-14.1% y/y) following May's sharp decline to 30,157. Layoffs increased in the aerospace/defense, automotive, [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance claims declined 16,000 to 254,000 (-12.0% y/y) during the week ended July 2 from 270,000 in the prior week, revised from 268,000. It was the lowest level since mid-April. The Action Economics [...]

Weakness on the doorstep and Brexit looms German IP dropped 1.3% in May, marking its third drop in four months as well as its fifth drop in seven months. The IP drops in May and March are large, each in excess of 1%, while the April [...]

The ADP/Moody's National Employment Report indicated that nonfarm private sector payrolls rose 172,000 during June following a 168,000 May increase, revised from 173,000. During all of last quarter, payrolls rose an average 163,000 [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Market Volume Index jumped 14.2% last week (51.4% y/y) to the highest level since June 2013. Purchase applications increased 4.3% (10.5% y/y) while refinancing [...]

Regular gasoline prices fell to $2.29 per gallon last week (-18.0% y/y), down from $2.40 early last month, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Nevertheless, prices remained near the highest level since early September. Prices [...]

The Composite Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Business Activity from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) strengthened to 56.5 during June versus an unrevised 52.9 in May. It was the highest level since November. Consensus [...]