Economy in Brief: February 2021

• Service sector activity improves for third straight month. • Component activity remains mixed. • Pricing power is little changed. The Composite Index of Services Activity from the Institute for Supply Management rose to 58.7 during [...]

• Job increase more-than-recoups December decline. • Broad-based sector gains are logged. • Medium-sized payrolls post strongest increase. Despite the COVID-19 epidemic and winter weather, the labor market improved last month. The ADP [...]

• Led by surge in refinancing applications; purchase applications little changed. • Fixed mortgage interest rates mixed while adjustable rates jumped up. The Mortgage Bankers Association Mortgage Loan Applications Index rebounded in [...]

• Sales of light trucks lead the improvement. • Domestic passenger car sales falter. • Imports' share of vehicle market improves. Light vehicle sales improved last month. The Autodata Corporation reported that sales of light vehicles [...]

The EMU region has just released its GDP growth rate which fell by 2.8% (saar) in Q4. Of the six early EMU reporters in the table, only two, Italy and France, showed GDP declines in Q4. This, however, is an odd quarter as it is the [...]

• Gasoline prices continue to rise. • Oil prices ease slightly. • Natural gas prices bounce back. The price of regular gasoline increased to $2.41 per gallon (-1.9% y/y) in the week ended February 1 from $2.39 per gallon in the [...]

• Overall activity hits record high. • Residential building surge led by single-family sector. • Public sector building edges higher. The value of construction put-in-place increased 1.0% during December (5.7% y/y) following [...]

Nine reporters in the table have manufacturing sectors that took a step back in January while eight improved on the month. The unweighted average PMI reading edged lower to 53.9 in January from 54.2 in December. In Asia, the [...]