Economy in Brief

The Composite Index for the service and construction sectors from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) matched expectations and slipped to 55.2 last month from a revised 55.7 during December. (Earlier figures were revised due to [...]

In January the European monetary Union's service sector index moved up sharply. Improvement was seen across most of the euro-Area. France and Italy are exceptions. In France the services PMI index fell to 43.57 from a value of 45.19 [...]

The pump price for a gallon of regular gasoline surged 18 cents last week to $3.54 per gallon (1.6% y/y). That followed a 4 cent rise during the prior week. Prices remain down 34 cents per gallon since their September peak. The norm [...]

The latest report from the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs indicated that consumers continue to spend cautiously. Chain store sales rose 2.4% last week (2.6% y/y) following a 3.2% pullback during all of [...]

Orders to all manufacturers jumped 1.8% (0.7% y/y) to close out the year, following a 0.3% November slip. The rise roughly matched expectations. For all of 2012, an easing of strength in the factory sector was evidenced by the modest [...]

EMU PPI trends appear to be stabilizing on top of the target pace for the HICP. The ECB has not formal target for the PPI. But its 2.1% on muted momentum seems like something the ECB would be pleased with -even its German [...]

Now is still a time when auto showrooms are busy, but the buying frenzy has topped off. Unit sales of light motor vehicles during January slipped 0.6% m/m (9.4% y/y) to 15.29M (SAAR) according to the Autodata Corporation. That was the [...]

The chart shows the latest twist in EMU. The recent observations plot a picture that looks like a snake with its mouth open, sticking out its green tongue. We have achieved this graphic design without using members from the periphery [...]