Economy in Brief

The index of Leading Economic Indicators, published by the Conference Board, increased 0.3% (5.0% y/y) in January following no change in December, revised from up 0.1%. A 0.4% rise was expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. [...]

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank reported that its General Business Conditions Index for February fell sharply to -6.3 from 9.4 in January. It was the lowest level in twelve months and remained meaningfully lower than the [...]

There has been such ecstasy about Europe turning the corner on growth that little attention has been paid to the slow speed of that turn. If you have been watching figure skating at the Olympics, you have seen the role of speed and [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance edged down to 336,000 (-8.2% y/y) during the week ended February 15 versus an unrevised 339,000 during the week prior. Expectations had been for 335,000 claims in the Action Economic forecast [...]

Consumer prices nudged 0.1% higher (1.6% y/y) during January following a 0.2% December rise. The increase matched consensus expectations in the Action Economics survey. Consumer prices excluding food and energy also gained 0.1% [...]

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline prices increased to $3.38 (-9.8% y/y) last week but remained down versus the $3.78 per gallon peak reached in February of last year. Haver Analytics constructs seasonal factors to account for [...]

The Producer Price Index underwent major revision this month. It now includes prices for final demand of goods, services and construction as well as a reading of intermediate demand prices. The overall final demand PPI rose 0.2% in [...]

The Greek merchandise trade deficit slipped deeper into red-ink territory in December, falling to 1.5 billion euro from a 1.3 billion euro deficit in November. At this point it's not clear what we would consider as truly good news for [...]