Economy in Brief: February 2020

The ADP National Employment Report indicated that private nonfarm payrolls increased 291,000 (1.5% y/y) during January following a 199,000 December gain, revised from 202,000. It was the largest increase in roughly five years and [...]

The gain in the PPI in December on rising oil prices will find oil much lower in January as the coronavirus struck globally and as Brent and WTI prices have fallen. As a result, the trend in this report are likely to be blunted in the [...]

Factory orders increased 1.8% (-0.4% y/y) during December following a 1.2% November decline, revised from -0.7% m/m. A 1.2% rise had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Durable goods orders surged 2.4% (-3.6% y/y, [...]

Retail gasoline prices fell to $2.46 per gallon (+8.9% y/y) in the week ended February 3 from $2.51 per gallon in the previous week. This was the fourth consecutive weekly decline and the lowest price since March 2019. Haver Analytics [...]

The Autodata Corporation reported that sales of light vehicles during January edged 1.1% higher (2.0% y/y) to 17.05 million units (SAAR) from 16.87 million in December. During the last three months, sales averaged 17.00 million units, [...]

• Construction spending decreased 0.2% in December. • Upward revisions to previous months suggest little impact on Q4 GDP. • Strong residential construction was offset by weak non-residential, consistent with the Q4 GDP data. The [...]

Manufacturing PMIs show some bounce and lift in January as the average (unweighted average, excluding France and Germany) is up to 50.4, the first value above 50 since April 2019. Still, the ranking of this index is below its median [...]

• Construction spending decreased 0.2% in December. • Upward revisions to previous months suggest little impact on Q4 GDP. • Strong residential construction was offset by weak nonresidential, consistent with the Q4 GDP data. The value [...]