Economy in Brief: 2008

The Institute for Supply Management reported that its Business Activity Index for the non-manufacturing sector improved again in March to 52.2. That was up from 50.8 in February and from 41.9 in January. Consensus expectations had [...]

PPI trends are decidedly poor in the Euro Area. The core PPI excluding energy is on the rise with its three-month pace at 5.1% up from 3.9% over six months and from 3.6% over 12 months. This sort of acceleration in the ex-energy rate [...]

Factory inventories rose 0.5% in February, down from the 1.3% surge during January. Despite the lesser rate of monthly gain, the three month growth in inventories jumped to 11.3% (AR) which was near its strongest since early 2005. [...]

Job cut announcements in March fell to 53,579 from 72,091 during the prior month, according to the Challenger, Grey & Christmas survey. The three month average of announcements, however, has been stable since early last year. The [...]

The ADP National Employment Report, from the payroll processor, reported that private nonfarm payrolls rose 8,000 last month after a slightly revised decline of 18,000 during February. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics employment [...]

U.S. sales of light vehicles during March at a 15.11M unit annual selling rate were at the lowest level since October 2005 according to the Autodata Corporation. The 1.7% m/m decline from 15.38M followed an increase of just 0.3% [...]

Factory inventories rose 0.5% in February, down from the 1.3% surge during January. Despite the lesser rate of monthly gain, the three month growth in inventories jumped to 11.3% (AR) which was near its strongest since early 2005. [...]

While German unemployment fell more than expected in March there has been no relief to German retailers or by association consumers. The growth rate series in the chart is remarkable for its tranquility. German real retail sales are [...]