Economy in Brief

Initial unemployment insurance claims rose to 315,000 during the week ended September 6 from 304,000 in the prior week, revised from 302,000. It was the highest level of claims since the last week of June. The Action Economics [...]

Inflation in the euro area continues to snake lower. Among the early reporters of inflation data, Spain has the lowest year-over-year inflation at -0.5%, followed by Greece and Italy each at -0.2%. Germany is a high inflation country [...]

Inventories at the wholesale level edged 0.1% higher during July following a 0.2% June increase, revised from 0.3%. Inventories of durable goods increased 0.3% (8.4% y/y). Hardware inventories gained 1.8% (7.6% y/y while motor vehicle [...]

Among the eight reporting countries of the European Monetary Union, five of these early reporters showed increases and three showed declines for industrial production in July. Output is lower by 0.3% in France, by 0.4% in Finland and [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that their total Mortgage Market Volume Index declined 7.2% last week (-15.0% y/y) after the prior week's 0.2% uptick. Applications were at the lowest level of the economic recovery. [...]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in its Job Openings & Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) that the job openings rate during July held m/m at 3.3% following its jump from 2.8% at yearend 2013. The latest level was the highest since [...]

The National Federation of Independent Business reported that its Small Business Optimism Index rose to 96.1 during August following an unrevised July increase to 95.7. The latest level remained near its highest since September 2007, [...]

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline held steady last week at $3.46. It's been near that level for four weeks but was off 3.6% y/y. To account for seasonal patterns, Haver Analytics constructs factors for adjustment of pump [...]