Economy in Brief

It is now five consecutive quarters of GDP declines in EMU...and counting. The Year-over year drop is now at 0.9%. While the US reported a drop in GDP in Q4 as well it is still stronger than any economy in the table, those are EMU [...]

EMU IP is showing a gain in December of 1%. Month to month. It is still falling over 3-Months and six months and 12-months. But the pace of its decline is slowing. Output in the EMU region is still some 5.2% below its past cycle peak. [...]

The job market is on the road to recovery. Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 341,000 (-5.5% y/y) during the week ended February 9 versus a revised 368,000 a week earlier, reported initially as 366,000. Consensus [...]

Inventories are not sitting for long on businesses' shelves. Business inventories rose 0.1% (5.5% y/y) during December following a downwardly revised 0.2% November increase. That was the slowest monthly rise in six months. It lowered [...]

. January retail sales ticked up a minimal 0.1% following an unrevised 0.5% December increase. November's increase was raised to 0.5% from 0.4%. The latest uptick matched expectations, according to Action Economics. Retail sales [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association index of total mortgage applications fell 6.4% (-0.7% y/y) last week to the lowest level in five weeks. Home purchase applications fell 9.5% (17.3% y/y) while applications to refinance an existing loan [...]

U.S. prices in the foreign trade sector recovered last month following December weakness. Import prices increased 0.6% (-1.3% y/y) after a 0.5% December decline, originally reported as -0.1%. The Action Economics survey looked for [...]

Growth in consumer spending throttled back last month following a firm ending to last year. January retail sales ticked up a minimal 0.1% following an unrevised 0.5% December increase. November's increase was raised to 0.5% from 0.4%. [...]