Economy in Brief: July 2015

Initial unemployment insurance claims gained to 281,000 (-10.7% y/y) in the week ended June 27 from an unrevised 271,000 in the prior week. The four week moving average ticked up to 274,750, up slightly from the low in May. The Action [...]

Nonfarm payroll employment during June increased 223,000 (2.1% y/y) following a downwardly revised 254,000 May rise. The latest increase fell short of expectations for 230,000 in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Improvement in [...]

Nonfarm payroll employment during June increased 223,000 (2.1% y/y) following a downwardly revised 254,000 May rise. The latest increase fell short of expectations for 230,000 in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Improvement in [...]

In May the PPI excluding construction was dead flat. Year-over-year, the ex-construction PPI is down by 2%. But the ex-construction index has not so clearly made the turn to a rising inflation trend despite a net rise over three [...]

Total sales of light vehicles declined 3.5% during June to 17.16 million units (+1.5% y/y) following May's 7.8% jump to the highest level since July 2005. Auto sales declined 4.0% last month to 7.78 million units (-6.1 y/y) after [...]

The value of construction put-in-place increased 0.8% during May following a little-revised 2.1% April gain. Three-month growth of 18.1% (AR) was the strongest since mid-2012. A 0.3% May rise had been expected in the Action Economics [...]

The outplacement firm of Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that job cut announcements during June increased to 44,842 (42.7% y/y) and added to May's unrevised increase of 41,034. Layoffs increased in aerospace/defense, chemicals, [...]

Factory sector activity is strengthening. The Composite Index from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) rose to 53.5 following an unrevised increase to 52.8 in May. It was the highest level in five months. Nevertheless, the [...]