Economy in Brief

Small business sentiment is emerging from the winter doldrums. The National Federation of Independent Business reported that its Small Business Optimism Index jumped to 95.2 during April after its increase to 93.4 in March. The latest [...]

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 [...]