Economy in Brief: April 2021

• Passenger car sales improve as light truck sales surge. • Domestic & import sales post strong increases. • Imports' share of vehicle market continues to rise. U.S. sales of light vehicles strengthened last month as COVID-19 vaccines [...]

Over 78% of the manufacturing PMIs in the table below show improvement in March compared to February. That's an extremely high proportion. On the timeline since January 2017, there is a good deal of improvement in train. Nine of the [...]

• Harsh winter weather curtailed building activity. • Residential decline led by multi-family sector. • Public-sector building weakened. Building activity weakened as severe winter weather curtailed activity. The value of construction [...]

• Factory activity increases to 1983 high. • Component strength is broad-based. • Pricing power remains strong. Factory sector activity remained robust last month. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) reported that its Composite [...]

• PUA claims continue to decline. • Insured jobless rate is unchanged in the week ending March 20. Initial claims for unemployment insurance were 719,000, an increase of 61,000 from the previous week, which was revised down by 26,000 [...]