Economy in Brief

The ADP/Moody's National Employment Report indicated a 179,000 rise (2.1% y/y) in May nonfarm private sector jobs. Last month's gain followed increases of 215,000 and 198,000 in April and March, revised down from 220,000 and 209,000. [...]

The total PMI for the European Monetary Union slipped to 53.5 in May from 54.0 in April. However, the 12-month, six-month and three-month moving averages continue to show steadily stronger readings on the shorter horizons. At the [...]

Auto buyers were out in force last month, lifting sales of light vehicles to the highest level since July 2006. According to the Autodata Corporation, unit sales of light vehicle sales during May increased 4.6% (8.3% y/y) to 16.77 [...]

New orders to all manufacturers increased 0.7% (4.9% y/y) during April following a 1.5% March advance, revised from 1.1%. A 0.6% rise was expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The gain reflected a 0.6% rise (7.1% y/y) in [...]

For New York State, the Institute for Supply Management reported that their index for business conditions, six months hence, jumped to 69.7 during May after falling sharply to 58.8 in April. Despite the gain, the index remained below [...]

Inflation in the United States has been running lower than in the European Monetary Union since around 2010. Over the last few months the US PCE inflation rate has turned higher while inflation in Europe has continued to drop. In May, [...]

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline improved to $3.69 last week (0.8% y/y) versus $3.67 averaged during May. The price remained down, however, from the $3.78 per gallon peak reached in February of last year. To account for [...]

The value of construction put-in-place during April improved 0.2% (8.6% y/y) following a 0.6% March increase, revised from 0.2%. So far in 2014, the value of construction spending has risen 0.7%, a result held back by severe winter [...]