Economy in Brief: March 2013

The pump price for a gallon of regular gasoline backpedaled by two cents last week to $3.76 per gallon (-0.9% y/y) following the prior week's three cent rise. It was the first weekly easing in prices since December. Nevertheless, [...]

What earlier was uniform strength in commodity prices has become mixed. The latest industrial commodity price index from the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research (FIBER) slipped during the last two weeks from [...]

For the last four months, vehicle sales have been firm. Unit sales of light motor vehicles during February ticked up 0.6% m/m (6.1% y/y) to 15.38M (SAAR) according to the Autodata Corporation. Sales have been roughly stable at their [...]

Construction put-in-place fell 2.1% in January (+7.1% y/y) after December's 1.1% increase. December was revised slightly from a 0.9% increase reported a month ago, but November received a boost from new data on electric power plant [...]

The University of Michigan's Index of Consumer Sentiment in February rose to 77.6 (3.1% y/y) from 73.8 in January. The mid-February reading was 76.3. Despite the gain, the figure remained down versus the November high of 82.7 and [...]

The factory sector is increasingly gaining a firmer footing. The February composite index of manufacturing activity from the Institute for Supply Management rose to 54.2 from an unrevised 53.1 in January. The latest number beat [...]

Personal income slumped 3.6% last month (+2.2% y/y) after an unrevised 2.6% December jump. A 2.1% decline was the consensus expectation. Last month's fall was due to a one-third drop (-3.3% y/y) in dividend earnings. Income, other [...]