Economy in Brief

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline declined another five cents last week to $3.54 (-2.9% y/y). Prices remained down from the $3.78 per gallon peak reached in February of last year. To account for seasonal volatility, Haver [...]

Activity in the service & construction sectors increased last month at its quickest rate since August 2005. The Composite Index for the service & building sectors from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) rose to 58.7 in July [...]

Lower oil prices recently have countered increases in most other industrial commodity prices and left the overall trend muted. The industrial commodity price index, from the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research [...]

The EMU producer price index rose by 0.2% in June as its year-over-year drop was cut to just -0.1%. The trend for the PPI is not absolutely clear from the sequential growth rates since there is a speedup drop from 12 months to six [...]

According to the Autodata Corporation, sales of light vehicles declined 2.5% during July to 16.48 million units (SAAR). Sales still were 4.6% higher y/y. Moreover, sales were 2.7% higher versus December and up 82.2% since the [...]

Personal income increased 0.4% during June (3.9% y/y) after a 0.4% rise in May. Consensus expectations had anticipated a 0.4% gain. Wages & salaries were also up 0.4% in both May and June (4.9% y/y). Proprietors' income was also up [...]

The Composite Index of Manufacturing Sector Activity from the Institute for Supply Management increased to 57.1 during July versus an unrevised 55.3 in June. The reading was the highest since April 2011 and exceeded consensus [...]

The rate of job market improvement toned down a bit last month. Nonfarm payrolls increased 209,000 during July following upwardly-revised gains of 298,000 and 229,000 during the prior two months. The increase fell short of [...]