Economy in Brief: December 2015

Total sales of light vehicles eased 0.3% during November to 18.19 million units (SAAR) following a like increase in October. Sales have risen 6.2% since last November and were near the highest level since July 2005. Passenger car [...]

The value of construction put-in-place increased 1.0% during October following an unrevised 0.6% September increase. Three-month growth of 10.4% (AR) was steady with Q3 but down sharply from 29.2% during Q2. A 0.5% October rise had [...]

November was a difficult month for global manufacturing. The PMIs from select countries in the table above show 14 countries and one area (EMU); among these, PMI gauges fell in six of them and two others were flat. That's bad news for [...]

Activity in the manufacturing sector declined last month according the Institute for Supply Management. Its Composite Index of factory sector activity fell to 48.6 during November from an unrevised October reading of 50.1. This was [...]

Gasoline prices at the pump declined last week to $2.06 per gallon, down 3 cents from the prior week. Prices were down 25.9% y/y and roughly equaled the January low of $2.04. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the [...]