Economy in Brief

PPI trends in the EMU continue to push lower. The chart shows that only intermediate goods inflation trend has a small upturn in recent months. In May the PPI (excluding construction) rose by 0.1% after a 0.2% April increase. Still, [...]

Employment growth picked up steam last month. The ADP/Moody's National Employment Report indicated a 281,000 rise (2.1% y/y) in June nonfarm private sector jobs. It was the firmest rise since November 2012 and followed unrevised [...]

Employment growth picked up steam last month. The ADP/Moody's National Employment Report indicated a 281,000 rise (2.1% y/y) in June nonfarm private sector jobs. It was the firmest rise since November 2012 and followed unrevised [...]

June was a strong prelude to summer for auto-dealers. According to the Autodata Corporation, unit sales of light vehicles increased 1.2% (6.9% y/y) versus May to 16.98 million (SAAR), the highest level since January 2006. The gain [...]

The value of construction put-in-place edged up 0.1% (6.6% y/y) during May following a 0.8% April increase, revised from 0.2%. Figures back to January 2008 were revised. Since December, the value of construction spending has fallen [...]

The chart on the left makes it quite clear that manufacturing in the euro area has turned lower, according to the Markit manufacturing PMIs. France, after lingering behind Germany and the EMU totals, surged to its cycle high two [...]

The Composite Index of Manufacturing Sector Activity from the Institute for Supply Management held fairly steady at 55.3 during June versus an unrevised 55.4 in May. The reading remained nearly the highest since December but was below [...]

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline held at $3.70 last week (5.9% y/y). Prices remained down from the $3.78 per gallon peak reached in February of last year. To account for seasonal volatility, Haver Analytics constructs [...]