Economy in Brief

The PPI in the European Monetary Union fell again in August, dropping by 0.2% after falling by 0.4% in July. The year-over-year drop is now 1.4%, a bit sharper than the 1.3% drop reported last month. The table at the bottom has PPI [...]

New orders to all manufacturers fell 10.1% (+4.1% y/y) during August following the 10.5% July jump. A 9.3% decline was expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. An 18.4% (+8.6% y/y) decline in durable goods orders led the [...]

The outplacement firm of Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that job cut announcements declined to 30,477 (-24.4% y/y) during September, the lowest level since June 2007. Layoffs declined m/m in the electronics, pharmaceutical, [...]

The labor market continues to improve. Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 287,000 (-9.7% y/y) in the week ended September 27 from 295,000 during the prior week, revised from 293,000. The Action Economics Forecast Survey [...]

According to the Autodata Corporation, September sales of light vehicles fell back to 16.43 million units (SAAR) from 17.53 million in August. The decline retraced most of the August jump to the 2006 high, and left unit sales up 5.8% [...]

The value of construction put-in-place edged 0.8% lower (+5.0% y/y) during August following a 1.2% July increase. During the last five months, the value of construction spending has been little changed. The latest increase [...]

The Institute for Supply Management's composite index of manufacturing sector activity fell back to 56.6 in September after jumping to 59.0 in August. Despite the decline, the Q3'14 average of 57.6 was the highest since Q1'11. The [...]

The ADP/Moody's National Employment Report indicated that hiring remained in the moderate growth range of the last six months. Private sector employment improved last month to 213,000 (2.2% y/y) following a 202,000 August increase, [...]