Economy in Brief

Initial claims for jobless insurance during the week ended August 30 rose to 302,000 from 298,000 in the prior week, which was unrevised. The Action Economics Forecast Survey participants expected 300,000 in the latest week. The four- [...]

According to the Autodata Corporation, sales of light vehicles soared in August, jumping up to a much larger-than-expected 17.53 million units (SAAR) from 16.48 million in July. Increased automaker incentives interacted with a [...]

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline inched up in the week ended Monday to an average of $3.459 from $3.454 the week before; the latest was off 4.1% y/y. These prices are usually firmer during the week of Labor Day, and this [...]

Euro area retail sales backed off in July as overall and ex-food sales fell. Both sales flows accelerated over 6-months compared to 12-months but then decelerated over 3-months compared to both six-months and 12-months. Motor vehicle [...]

The EMU PPI fell in July and its 1.1% year-over-year drop is the largest since April. Capital goods prices are eking out gains over all horizons (in the table), but the increases are marginal. Consumer goods prices over all horizons [...]

The U.S. manufacturing sector continued its solid rebound as the Institute for Supply Management's index of manufacturing sector activity jumped to 59.0 in August from 57.1 in July and 55.3 in June. The August move was much larger [...]

Chicago purchasing managers indicated that their August index of General Business Conditions jumped to 64.3 this month and more-than-reversed an unrevised drop to 52.6 in July. It was the highest level in three months and exceeded [...]

Today's data underscore the difficulty faced by the European Monetary Union. The unemployment rate remains high and declines are being posted generally only in the peripheral countries (the Netherlands, an exception to this) that have [...]