Economy in Brief

Consumer prices gained 0.3% (2.1% y/y) during June following a strong 0.4% May rise. The reading matched consensus expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Consumer prices excluding food and energy ticked 0.1% higher [...]

Italy's Industrial orders slipped in May after increases in back-to-back months. In May foreign orders fell hard while domestic orders slipped by just 0.2%. But the string of declines for domestic orders is longer. The consistency of [...]

The National Association for Business Economics regularly surveys its members regarding industry conditions, covering a wide range of topics. The latest survey indicated improvement in most categories or a return to conditions in [...]

The Chicago Federal Reserve reported that its National Activity Index (CFNAI) for June slipped to 0.12 versus 0.16 in May, revised from 0.21. The three-month moving average fell to 0.13, the weakest reading since March. During the [...]

The overall U.S. unemployment rate fell sharply last month to 6.1%, a six-year low, from 10.0% at its late-2009 peak. There continues to be great variation amongst individual states, but a declining trend is evident most everywhere. [...]

No man is an island; nor is any country (except in some cases literally). And even though the U.S. is geographically separated from most of its trading partners by large distances, it is influenced by events in their economies. But no [...]

The Index of Leading Economic Indicators, from the Conference Board, improved 0.3% during June (6.3% y/y), the fifth straight month of firm increase. The June gain fell short of expectations for a 0.5% increase in the Action Economics [...]

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank reported that its General Business Conditions Index for July jumped to 23.9 from 17.8 in June. The figure was the highest since March 2011 and it beat consensus expectations for a decline to 16.0, [...]