Economy in Brief: 2010

Expansion in factory sector activity continued during November, as indicated by the Composite Index from the Institute for Supply Management. It slipped to 56.6 from 56.9 in October but the latest was the highest level since May. The [...]

The outplacement firm of Challenger, Grey & Christmas indicated that the level of layoffs during November again increased slightly to 48,711. The level was the least since March. Planned layoffs announced during the first eleven [...]

German retail sales fell in August plummeted in September then ratcheted higher in October leaving the growth of retail sales at zero over three months. Over six months and 12-months the rate is the same at just below a pace of 4%. In [...]

In its latest National Employment Report, the payroll processor, Automatic Data Processing (ADP), indicated that the level of private nonfarm payrolls rose 93,000 m/m during November. Upward revisions to earlier monthly figures show [...]

Japan’s industrial production index is slowing over three-months and over six months.It is also falling in each of the last five months and of course, over three months, and also over six months. Weakness in the output of consumer [...]

More information on the economic performance of individual countries in the third quarter of this year is becoming available. Third quarter GDP for two developed economies, Canada and Denmark, and three emerging economies, India, [...]

The Conference Board reported that consumer confidence improved modestly for the second month during November but remained down sharply from the May high. The index of overall confidence rose 8.4% to 54.1 following a little-changed [...]

This holiday season began with a firm gain in consumer spending. Last week, chain store sales increased 0.5% to recover after the prior week's 0.6% decline. Adding to earlier strength, the rise lifted sales for the month 1.2% above [...]