Economy in Brief

Initial claims for unemployment insurance rebounded to 326,000 during the week ended March 29 from a little-revised 310,000 in the prior week. Expectations had been for 317,000 claims in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The four- [...]

The U.S. foreign trade deficit of $42.3 billion in February compared to $39.3 billion in January, last month reported as $39.1 billion. A $39.0 billion deficit had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The deficit's [...]

Producer and consumer price trends continue to work lower in the European Monetary Union. At the same time, growth continues to be for the most part slow and uneven. These two trends put pressure on the European Central Bank to act. [...]

Inventories in the factory sector increased 0.7% (2.5% y/y). Transportation equipment inventories gained 1.6% (9.2% y/y) while excluding transportation, inventories rose 0.4% (1.0% y/y). Furniture inventories increased 0.8% (0.3% [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that their total mortgage market index fell 1.2% last week (-54.9% y/y) following an unrevised 3.5% drop during the prior week. It was the third decline in the last four weeks and applications [...]

The ADP/Moody's National Employment Report reported a 191,000 rise (2.0% y/y) in nonfarm private sector jobs during March. Expectations were for a 189,000 increase in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Last month's rise followed [...]

According to the Autodata Corporation, unit sales of light vehicle sales during March rose 7.1% y/y to 16.40 million (SAAR), roughly the highest level since February 2007. On a month-to-month basis, sales improved 6.9%. Sales of light [...]

The value of construction put-in-place eked out a 0.1% rise (8.7% y/y) during February following a revised 0.2% January slip, initially reported as a 0.1% gain. Recently weak performance lowered three-month growth in construction to [...]