Economy in Brief: 2019

The ISM composite index of business activity in the factory sector fell to 54.1 during December after rising to 59.3 in November. It was the lowest reading since November 2016. A level of 57.8 had been expected in the Action Economics [...]

ADP reported in its National Employment Report that private nonfarm payrolls increased 271,000 during December following a 157,000 November rise, revised from 179,000. It was the largest increase since February 2017. During all of [...]

Initial unemployment insurance claims jumped 10,000 to 231,000 (-6.9% y/y) in the week ended December 29 versus an upwardly revised 221,000 in the previous week. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expectation was for 219,000 new [...]

Gasoline prices fell to $2.27 per gallon this past week (-10.1% y/y) from $2.32 during the prior week. Haver Analytics constructs factors to adjust for the marked seasonal variation in prices. The seasonally-adjusted gasoline price [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas reported in its Texas Service Sector Outlook Survey that the General Business Activity Index declined to -5.0 during December from 11.4 in November. It was lowest level since August 2016 and below [...]

Asia manufacturing PMIs continue weak in data reported in the New Year that are up-to-date through December 2018. The rank standing data are very mixed with China logging a very low 2.9 percentile standing and Malaysia on an all-time [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas reported in its Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey that the General Business Activity Index declined to -5.1 during December from 17.6 in November. It was the lowest level since June 2016. The index [...]