Economy in Brief

Foreign Demand Sinks as Domestic Demand Revives But Core Orders Stage Turnaround Nailing down Japan's economic trends can be harder than nailing Jell-O to the wall. Japan's orders report has enough convoluted trends to keep us [...]

The National Association for Business Economics held steady its expectation for 2.3% real U.S. economic growth next year. This year's estimate was reduced again, however, to 1.5% from 1.8%, and from 2.6% projected in December. The [...]

There is nothing quite like the day of reckoning. You can skate along with all sorts of beliefs and ideas then one day out of the blue something happens that turns that world upside-down and exposes a whole new heretofore unthought-of [...]

Wholesale sector sales slipped 0.5% m/m (-1.0% y/y) in July following an outsize 1.7% m/m (revised from 1.9% m/m) jump in June. The Action Economics Survey had looked for a 0.2% m/m increase. Nondurable goods sales, which had led the [...]

Consumer credit outstanding picked up in July, increasing $17.7 billion (6.0% y/y) during the month versus an upwardly revised, though still subpar, $14.5 billion (initially $12.3 billion) rise in June. The previously reported May [...]

Initial unemployment insurance claims edged down to 259,000 (-5.8% y/y) in the week ending September 3 from an unrevised 263,000 in the week ended August 27. The four-week moving average also eased to 261,250 from 263,000 (also [...]

Consumer credit outstanding picked up in July, increasing $17.7 billion (6.0% y/y) during the month versus an upwardly revised, though still subpar, $14.5 billion (initially $12.3 billion) rise in June. The previously reported May [...]

The OECD LEIs for July are mostly at index levels below 100 which indicate some slowing. In the top panel of select countries/regions only EMU retains an index value above 100 at 100.2. China is below 100 but has picked up in July [...]