Economy in Brief

The ADP/Moody's National Employment Report indicated that nonfarm private sector payrolls rose 257,000 during December following a 211,000 November increase, revised from 217,000. The latest increase was firmer than expectations for a [...]

The U.S. foreign trade deficit narrowed to $42.4 billion in November from a revised $44.6 billion in October (initially -$43.9 billion). The Action Economics Forecast Survey had anticipated a deficit of $44.2 billion. However, the [...]

Records were meant to be broken, and total sales of light vehicles in 2015 did just that. Rising to 17.42 million units, they just beat the old record of 17.40 million reached in 2000, as gasoline prices and interest rates fell. The [...]

For all of 2015, the pump price for a gallon of regular gasoline averaged $2.03 according to the U.S. Department of Energy, the lowest level since 2008. Prices have fallen 45% since late-April of 2004. As of last week, pump prices [...]

The value of construction put-in-place declined 0.4% (+9.7% y/y) during November following a 0.3% October rise, revised from 1.0%. Three-month growth of 0.2% (AR) compared to 29.2% during Q2. A 0.5% rise in November had been expected [...]

Activity in the manufacturing sector fell to the weakest level since June 2009. The ISM Composite Index of factory sector activity fell to 48.2 during December from an unrevised 48.6 in November. The reading disappointed expectations [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose to 287,000 (-2.0%y/y) in the week ended December 26 from 267,000 the previous week. That latter figure was unrevised. Consensus expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey looked [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending sales of single-family homes fell 0.9% in November (+5.1% y/y) following October's 0.4% rise, which was initially reported as 0.2%. The November sales volume is 4.8% [...]