Economy in Brief

June was a strong prelude to summer for auto-dealers. According to the Autodata Corporation, unit sales of light vehicles increased 1.2% (6.9% y/y) versus May to 16.98 million (SAAR), the highest level since January 2006. The gain [...]

The value of construction put-in-place edged up 0.1% (6.6% y/y) during May following a 0.8% April increase, revised from 0.2%. Figures back to January 2008 were revised. Since December, the value of construction spending has fallen [...]

The chart on the left makes it quite clear that manufacturing in the euro area has turned lower, according to the Markit manufacturing PMIs. France, after lingering behind Germany and the EMU totals, surged to its cycle high two [...]

The Composite Index of Manufacturing Sector Activity from the Institute for Supply Management held fairly steady at 55.3 during June versus an unrevised 55.4 in May. The reading remained nearly the highest since December but was below [...]

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline held at $3.70 last week (5.9% y/y). Prices remained down from the $3.78 per gallon peak reached in February of last year. To account for seasonal volatility, Haver Analytics constructs [...]

Chicago purchasing managers indicated that their June index of General Business Conditions fell to 62.6 this month after an unrevised 65.5 in May. The figure disappointed expectations for 63.0 in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. [...]

Pending sales of single-family homes jumped 6.1% (-5.2% y/y) during May, according the National Association of Realtors (NAR), following a little-revised 0.5% April increase. Expectations had been for a 1.5% rise, according to [...]

German retail trends are turning lower as three-month, six-month and twelve-month growth rates are all sub-zero. Moreover, sequentially the sales drop is getting progressively larger. Even car registrations are showing a sharp [...]