Economy in Brief

Total business inventories rose 0.3% during September following a 0.1% August gain, revised from 0.2%. Perhaps prompting the accumulation, total business sales were unchanged (4.1% y/y) following a 0.5% August slump, revised slightly [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance during the week ended December 6 slipped to 294,000 (-17.9% y/y) after falling to an unrevised 297,000 in the prior week. It was the lowest level of claims in three weeks. The four-week moving [...]

A breadth of expansion in October: Industrial output has risen in October in seven of ten early reporting EMU members and has fallen in just two. This follows September when six of ten countries advanced. However, the drop in August [...]

Overall retail sales including food services increased 0.7% during November following a 0.5% October gain, revised from 0.3%. A 0.4% rise had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Sales excluding autos rose 0.5% (4.3% [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that their total Mortgage Market Volume Index gained 7.3% last week (-6.0% y/y) following two weeks of decline. Applications to refinance a loan rebounded 13.2% (-7.1% y/y) but purchase [...]

The Federal Government reported a $56.8 billion budget deficit during November compared to a $135.2 billion during November of last year. For the first two months of Fiscal Year 2015, the deficit of $178.5 billion compares to $-225.8 [...]

Japan's consumer confidence index in November fell to 37.7 from 38.9 in October. It was last weaker in April of this year. Japan's consumer confidence metric is a diffusion index. It was last above 50 (the expansion/contraction line [...]

Prices for industrial materials are showing broad-based decline. The industrial commodity price index from the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research (FIBER) fell 7.4% as of yesterday versus one year ago. Declines [...]