Economy in Brief: 2020

The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services increased to $48.88 billion in December ....... The international trade data, including relevant data on oil prices, can be found in Haver's USECON database. Detailed figures on [...]

Consumer credit outstanding increased $12.0 billion (4.4% y/y) during January following a $20.3 billion December gain, revised from $22.1 billion. A $17.0 billion increase had been expected by the Action Economics Forecast Survey. [...]

German orders rose by 5.5% in January after falling in each of the two previous months. The sharp gain is enough to boost growth positive over both three months and six months and to put orders on an accelerating path. The January [...]

The job market firmed in February. Nonfarm payroll employment increased 273,000 (1.6% y/y), repeating January's increase which was revised from 225,000. The December increase also was upwardly revised to 184,000 from 147,000. A [...]

Wholesale inventories fell 0.4% m/m (+0.4% y/y) in January on top of a 0.3% m/m decline in December). Apparently reflecting the 0.2% m/m decline in the advance report, the Informa Global Markets Survey anticipated a 0.2% decline in [...]

• The trade deficit in goods and services narrowed to $45.3 billion in January from $48.6 billion in December. • Exports of goods and services slipped 0.4% m/m while imports fell 1.6% m/m. The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services [...]

The job market firmed in February. Nonfarm payroll employment increased 273,000 (1.6% y/y), repeating January's increase which was revised from 225,000. The December increase also was upwardly revised to 184,000 from 147,000. A [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell 3,000 to 216,000 (-0.9% y/y) in the week ended February 29 from an unrevised 219,000 in the prior week. The February 29 result was slightly lower than the Action Economics Forecast Survey [...]