Economy in Brief

Retail and food service sales ticked 0.1% higher last month following a 1.5% March increase, revised from 1.1%. A 0.4% increase had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Sales of motor vehicles & parts increased 0.6% [...]

The Federal Government posted a $106.9 billion budget surplus during April of FY 2014. The latest figure compared to expectations for a $114.0 surplus in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. In the first seven months of this fiscal [...]

The Bank of France survey backtracked in April, falling to a value of 97.83 from March's 98.89. The index has a percentile standing in its historic range of 38.4%; it is weaker than its April standing only about 38% of the time. The [...]

Wholesale sales jumped 1.4% (6.5% y/y) during March following February's 0.9% gain, last month set at 0.8%. Nondurable goods sales increased 1.5% (7.9% y/y) as farm product sales surged 6.0% (-0.4% y/y). Grocery product sales also [...]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in its Job Openings & Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) that the job openings rate edged down to 2.8% during March from an unrevised 2.9% in February. The job openings rate is the number of job [...]

Japan's leading economic indicator fell to 106.5 in March from 108.7 in February. The indicator is now declining at a 19.1% annual rate over three months and a 6.8% annual rate over six months. Over 12 months the index is crawling [...]

German industrial production surprisingly fell by 0.5% in March. The drop follows a 0.6% gain in February and, while substantial, still allows strong growth in the first quarter. In the just-completed quarter to date, industrial [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 319,000 (-3.9% y/y) in the week ended May 3 from 345,000 in the week ended April 26, revised from 344,000. Expectations had been for 328,000 claims in the Action Economics Forecast [...]