Economy in Brief: March 2014

Personal consumption expenditures matched expectations and edged 0.1% higher (3.5% y/y) after a 0.1% December uptick. Late-2013 outlay levels were revised sharply lower. Motor vehicle purchases slipped 0.1% (-0.3% y/y) after a hefty [...]

The Institute for Supply Management reported that expectations for business conditions in New York State improved last month to the highest level since October 2010. The diffusion index level rose to 76.3 from 70.0 in January. (A [...]

The International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs reported that chain store sales inched up 0.3% (1.6% y/y) last week and made up half of the prior week's decline. The rise left sales up 1.5% versus last year, roughly [...]

EMU producer prices continue to crash and burn. While the European Central Bank has its focus on consumer prices using the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), the ongoing drop in PPI prices will give the ECB plenty of [...]

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline increased to $3.48 (-7.4% y/y) last week, up nineteen cents from the low four weeks ago. Nevertheless, prices remained below the $3.78 per gallon peak reached in February of last year. Haver [...]

Frigid temperatures may be continuing to discourage car buying. Unit sales of light motor vehicles edged up a scant 0.7% to 15.34 million (SAAR) during February, unchanged year-to-year according to the Autodata Corporation. Sales have [...]

The value of construction put-in-place ticked 0.1% higher in January (5.3% y/y) following a revised 1.5% December increase, initially reported as 0.1%. A 0.3% slip in building activity had been expected in the Action Economics [...]

The factory sector began to bounce back last month following heavy winter snowfalls. The Composite Index of Manufacturing Sector Activity from the Institute for Supply Management improved to 53.2 during February from 51.3 in January. [...]