Economy in Brief: May 2011

Factory sector activity recovered during March. Manufacturing orders jumped 3.0% after a 0.7% February gain that was revised up from a 0.1% slip reported earlier. For durable goods only, orders rose 2.9%, revised from the 2.5% [...]

Reported Friday was a hefty 0.6% gain in March disposable personal income. As we noted then, the strength of the nominal increase was limited to an outsized 2.7% rise in rental income, the third consecutive monthly such gain. Wage and [...]

There's been no let-up of the upward pressure on energy prices. Last week, the pump price for regular gasoline rose to $3.96 per gallon, the highest level since July, 2008. Typically, pump prices decline this time of year due to [...]

The Purchasing Managers Index for manufacturing in the Euro Area recovered in April some of the momentum lost in March. Although the index declined in March it remained in the expansion zone, that is over 50%. The index increased in [...]

The value of construction spending rebounded 1.4% during March following a deepened 2.4% February decline. Consensus expectations as indicated by Actions Economics called for a 0.4% monthly gain. The rise in construction last month [...]

The Composite Index of activity in the factory sector from the Institute for Supply Management slipped again, last month to 60.4 from an unrevised 61.2 in March. The figure was higher than Consensus expectations for 59.6. The latest [...]