Economy in Brief: June 2015

Sales of light vehicles reached a fifteen year high last month. At 17.79 million (AR), sales of total light vehicles in May increased 7.8% m/m (6.3% y/y) to the highest level since July 2005. Recent sales were revised slightly higher [...]

New orders in the manufacturing sector edged 0.4% lower during April (-6.4% y/y) following a 2.2% March increase, revised from 2.1%. Durable goods orders declined 1.0% (-2.8% y/y) following a 5.1% rise. The drop compared to a 0.5% [...]

Gasoline prices nudged up last week to an average $2.78 per gallon at the pump (-24.7% y/y) from $2.77 in the prior week. It remained the highest level of prices since early-December and prices were roughly one-third higher versus the [...]

Through April, PPI prices in the EMU still are falling, but barely so. Monthly trends across member nations are mixed. The HICP, just reported, showed its first gain in six months, rising 0.3% year-over-year. In April, unemployment is [...]

Momentum in the building sector recovered of late, perhaps helped by better weather. The value of construction put-in-place increased 2.2% during April (4.8% y/y) following a 0.5% March rise, revised from -0.6%. Three-month growth of [...]

Factory sector activity improved during May following several months of lackluster performance. The Composite Index from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) improved to 52.8 following an unrevised 51.5 in April and March. The [...]

Personal income recovered 0.4% during April (4.1% y/y) after remaining unchanged in March, as indicated last month. Expectations had been for a 0.3% rise in the Consensus Economics Forecast Survey. Wages & salaries improved 0.2% (4.6% [...]

The EMU manufacturing PMI in May edged up to 52.3 from 52.0 in April. The three-month average is barely crawling higher from 12-month to six-month to three-month. EMU momentum is barely identifiable. Germany show the same bare-bones [...]