Economy in Brief

Japan's all-sector index rose in October but only stands in the 68th percentile of its historic queue of values, the same as the construction sector. As we have seen in Europe and in the U.S., the manufacturing sector lags badly. The [...]

The Chicago Federal Reserve reported that its National Activity Index (CFNAI) during November fell to a three-month low of -0.30 from -0.17 in October, revised from -0.04. The 3-month moving average eased to -0.20, its weakest reading [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City reported that manufacturing sector business activity in the region deteriorated sharply during December, and completely reversed the improvement during the prior three months. The Composite [...]

The French PPI excluding construction rose by 0.2% in November after being flat in October and falling by 0.4% in September. The harmonized PPI also excluding construction rose by 0.1% in November after being flat in October and down [...]

The U.S. Current Account Deficit increased to $124.1 billion in Q3 from $111.1 billion in Q2, and was the largest deficit since Q4'08. The data are seasonally adjusted. The deficit in goods trade was fairly steady Q/Q but the services [...]

The Conference Board's Index of Leading Economic Indicators increased 0.4% during November following an unrevised 0.6% October rise. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected a 0.2% November gain. Three-month growth in the index [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance declined to 271,000 (-4.6% y/y) in the week ending December 12 from an unrevised 282,000 in the previous week. The decline reversed most of the prior month's increase. Action Economics [...]

Germany's Ifo business climate index backtracked in December to 10.4 from 10.9 in November. Still, the all-sector climate index stands in the 80.5 percentile of its historic queue of data. Among the components, manufacturing edged [...]