Economy in Brief: May 2019

The value of construction put-in-place increased 1.0% (1.1% y/y) during February.......... The construction spending figures, some of which date back to 1946, are in Haver's USECON database. The expectations reading can be found in [...]

The motor vehicle weakened significantly last month. The Autodata Corporation reported that sales of light vehicles during April declined 6.1% (-4.3% y/y) to 16.39 million units (SAAR). It reversed a 5.3% March increase and left sales [...]

The Federal Open Market Committee voted unanimously at today's meeting to leave the federal funds rate target in a range between 2.25% and 2.50%. The decision was expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The Fed stated that [...]

The U.K. manufacturing PMI from Markit falls to 53.1 in April from 55.1 in March. Interestingly, the averages of the various industrial gauges in the table show degradation from their respective 12-month averages to their six-month [...]

The ISM manufacturing index unexpectedly fell to 52.8 in April from 55.3 in March, making it the weakest reading since October 2016. The index remained below its expansion peak of 60.8 last August. The Action Economics Forecast Survey [...]

The value of construction put-in-place decreased 0.9% m/m (-0.8% y/y) in March following a 0.7% m/m increase (revised down from +1.0%) in February. The Action Economics Forecast Survey had expected a 0.1% m/m rise. The y/y decline in [...]

ADP indicated in its National Employment Report that private nonfarm payrolls increased 275,000 (2.1% y/y) during April following a 151,000 gain during March, revised from 129,000. The February increase also was revised up to 220,000 [...]