Economy in Brief

The rate of new job creation remains positive. The ADP/Moody's National Employment Report showed a 200,000 rise (1.8% y/y) in non-farm private sector jobs this month. That followed revised increases of 198,000 and 141,000 during June [...]

Retail sales in Germany fell unexpectedly in June by 1.2% after gaining 1% in May. With data for the quarter now complete, retail sales ex- autos are rising at a 1.9% annual rate in the second quarter in Germany. Car sales, or [...]

Economic momentum built last quarter. The 1.7% (1.4% y/y) advance in real GDP during Q2'13 was its strongest of the last three quarters. It also outpaced consensus expectations for a 1.0% rise. However, the advance was accompanied by [...]

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline fell to $3.65 last week (3.9% y/y) and reversed most of the prior week's gain. Nevertheless, prices remained near the highest price since March. Haver Analytics constructs seasonal factors to [...]

Consumer confidence remains on an uptrend. The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index rose to 81.4 this month following a downwardly revised May reading of 74.3. Consensus expectations had been for 75.2. During the last ten [...]

The EU index in July rose to 95 from 92.6, a relatively large jump the ranks 20th out of about the last 250 observations; that places it in the top 11% of all monthly changes over that period. Consumer confidence made a particular [...]

The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index slipped to 80.3 this month from an upwardly revised 82.1 in June, weighted down by the over-35 crowd. Consensus expectations had been for 81.0. During the last ten years, there has been [...]

Home price improvement remains the strongest since 2006. The seasonally adjusted Case-Shiller 20 City Home Price Index rose 1.0% (12.1% y/y) during May following its unrevised 1.7% April advance. The 3-month annualized rate of [...]