Economy in Brief

The services sector surveys for European economies and the US are completed today, allowing us to calculate total private sector indices for the various economies. The Markit index for the European Monetary Union moved up to 54.0 in [...]

The U.S. foreign trade deficit during March matched expectations and narrowed to $40.4 billion versus a February shortfall of $41.9 billion, last month reported as $42.3 billion. The deficit's easing reflected a 2.1% increase (5.0% [...]

The Composite Index for the service and construction sectors from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) rose to 55.2 in April, the second consecutive monthly gain. The latest figure beat expectations for 54.0 in the Action [...]

Industrial production (excluding construction) in Sweden fell by 3.8% in March with manufacturing production falling by 3.9%. Each of those drops follows a rise about 2% in February, but in each case those increases were preceded by a [...]

The Commerce Department reported Friday that inventories in the factory sector notched up 0.1% (2.6% y/y) during March, moderating from a 0.7% February rise. Transportation equipment inventories gained 0.7% (9.8% y/y) while, excluding [...]

The Institute for Supply Management reported that their index for business conditions, six months hence, in New York State deteriorated in April to 58.8 from 65.6 in March. It was the lowest level of the economic recovery. (A level [...]

Employers became more optimistic in April and boosted workforces by 288,000 following a 203,000 March rise, initially reported as 192,000. The rise was the strongest since January 2012 and easily outpaced expectations for a 210,000 [...]

The manufacturing PMI gauge for the European Monetary Union rose to 53.4 in April from 53.0 in March. The April level is barely above its February level of 53.2. The EMU manufacturing sector continues to improve, but improvement is [...]