Economy in Brief

German exports surged by 3% in April as imports edged ahead by just 0.1%. This combination sent the German trade surplus to ?17.7 billion in April, up from ?14.99 billion in March. Over 12 months. German exports and imports are [...]

Nonfarm payrolls increased 217,000 during May following little-revised gains of 282,000 and 203,000 during the prior two months. A 220,000 increase had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The unemployment rate [...]

The Federal Reserve's financial accounts data (formerly known as the "flow of funds") for Q1 tally total credit market borrowing at a $2.00 trillion annual rate, down from $3.37 trillion in Q4. Q4 is mildly revised from $3.12 trillion [...]

The outplacement firm of Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that job cut announcements rose to 52,961 (45.5% y/y) during May, the highest level since February 2013. Layoffs increased m/m in the chemical, computer, commodities, [...]

German orders rebounded strongly in April, rising by 3.1% after dropping by 2.8% in March. Domestic orders were flat in April, after falling by 0.6% in March. Foreign orders have recovered, rising by 5.5% after falling by 4.5% in [...]

Initial claims for jobless insurance nudged up to an expected 312,000 in the week ended May 31 from 304,000 in the prior week, revised from 300,000. Despite the rise, claims remained near the 2007 low. The four-week moving average of [...]

The Composite Index for the service and construction sectors from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) improved to 56.3 in May, its highest level in nine months. The latest figure beat expectations for 55.5 in the Action [...]

The U.S. foreign trade deficit during April surpassed expectations and rose sharply to $47.2 billion from $44.2 billion in March, last month reported as $40.4 billion. Exports declined 0.2% (+3.0% y/y following a revised 2.9% gain. [...]