Economy in Brief

Initial jobless insurance claims fell to 365,000 during the week ended September 1, the lowest level in four weeks. At 377,000, the prior week was revised up from 374,000. Consensus expectations were for a decline to 370,000 during [...]

Employment growth accelerated last month. August private sector payrolls rose 201,000 as reported by the payroll processor Automatic Data Processing (ADP) and economic consultants Macroeconomic Advisers. The gain was the strongest [...]

Europe’s PMIs continue to slip. The services sector deteriorated in August but MFG actually firmed its index although still held below 50 indicating an erosion of manufacturing sector output. Germany’s services sector took a big step [...]

It seems odd, but fewer mortgage applications are accompanying falling interest rates. The Mortgage Bankers Association index of total mortgage applications fell another 2.5% last week (+27.5% y/y), the fifth straight week of sharp [...]

Workers produced more for their effort in Q2'12 than estimated last month. Nonfarm business sector productivity for last quarter was revised up to 2.2% (1.2% y/y) from last month's estimate of a 1.6% gain. However, since growth in [...]

Chain store sales slipped 0.4% last week (+3.7% y/y) and reversed the prior week's increase. For August as a whole, sales fell 1.6% m/m after a 3.3% July gain. During the last ten years there has been a 72% correlation between the y/y [...]

For nine straight weeks gas prices have moved upward.The pump price of regular gasoline rose another six cents last week to $3.84 per gallon, the highest level since late April. And this is the time of year when seasonal price [...]

Car shoppers were busy last month. Unit sales of light motor vehicles during August gained 3.1% m/m (16.6% y/y) to 14.52M (SAAR) according to the Autodata Corporation. The gain recouped July's drop and raised sales to their highest [...]