Economy in Brief

The U.S. Treasury Department reported a $106.5 billion budget surplus during April of 2016, smaller than the $156.7 billion surplus twelve months earlier. A $112.5 billion deficit had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Market Volume Index nudged 0.4% higher last week (18.9% y/y) following a 3.4% decline. Purchase applications also improved 0.4% (14.0% y/y) after little change in the [...]

U.K. manufacturing industrial production rose by 0.1% in March as it fell at a 2% annual rate in Q1 2016. IP gained in March wholly on the back of capital equipment as consumer durables and nondurables output fell and intermediate [...]

Inventories at the wholesale level nudged 0.1% higher (0.2% y/y) during March following a 0.6% decline in February, revised from -0.5%. Nondurable goods sector inventories rose 0.5% (4.6% y/y) as petroleum inventories increased 3.3% [...]

The job openings rate increased to 3.9% during March from 3.8% in February, revised from 3.7%. The increase was to a level which equaled the record high. The private sector job openings rate held steady m/m at 4.1%, slightly below the [...]

The German trade surplus has moved sharply higher in March (on data back to 1996, the surplus never before been this large). Exports are up by 1.9% in the month and steadily accelerating to an 11.7% rate of growth over three months [...]

Regular gasoline prices eased to $2.22 per gallon last week (-17.5% y/y) after rising to $2.24 in the prior week, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Prices remained near the highest level since October. The price compares to [...]

The National Federation of Independent Business reported that its Small Business Optimism Index increased 1.1% during April to 93.6 following declines in three of the four prior months. An improved 8% of firms reported that now was a [...]