Economy in Brief

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline increased to $3.48 (-7.4% y/y) last week, up nineteen cents from the low four weeks ago. Nevertheless, prices remained below the $3.78 per gallon peak reached in February of last year. Haver [...]

Frigid temperatures may be continuing to discourage car buying. Unit sales of light motor vehicles edged up a scant 0.7% to 15.34 million (SAAR) during February, unchanged year-to-year according to the Autodata Corporation. Sales have [...]

The value of construction put-in-place ticked 0.1% higher in January (5.3% y/y) following a revised 1.5% December increase, initially reported as 0.1%. A 0.3% slip in building activity had been expected in the Action Economics [...]

The factory sector began to bounce back last month following heavy winter snowfalls. The Composite Index of Manufacturing Sector Activity from the Institute for Supply Management improved to 53.2 during February from 51.3 in January. [...]

The peculiar case of the EMU slowdown: Just as everyone has begun to agree that the European Monetary Union (EMU) is in a state of recovery, that recovery has begun to downshift. In Q4 much of the euro area emerged from a long, [...]

Personal income gained 0.3% during January (4.1% y/y) after little change in December. The gain beat expectations for a 0.2% rise in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Disposable personal income increased 0.4% (4.0% y/y). Wages & [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending sales of single-family homes ticked up 0.1% during January following a 5.8% December decline, revised from an 8.7% shortfall. The latest uptick followed six consecutive [...]

Real GDP growth for Q4'13 eased more than initially estimated. The growth estimate was lowered by the Department of Commerce to 2.4% (2.5% y/y) from 3.2% in the advance release, down sharply from 4.1% in the third quarter. The gain [...]