Economy in Brief

Orders in the manufacturing sector fell 0.5% in June and retraced their May increase. Expectations were for a 0.3% increase. Durable goods orders increased 1.3%, revised from last week's advance report of a 1.6% rise. Nondurable goods [...]

The outplacement firm of Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that 36,855 job cuts were announced last month. Job cut announcements fell in the education, energy, telecommunications, pharmaceutical, apparel, computer, construction, [...]

Car buyers remain motivated to do just that. Reported late yesterday, unit sales of light motor vehicles during July slipped just 2.0% m/m to 14.09M (SAAR) according to Autodata Corporation. The decline followed a 3.0% June gain and [...]

Initial unemployment insurance claims matched expectations and rose to 365,000 during the week ended July 28 from 357,000 during the prior week, revised from 353,000. The four-week moving average of claims fell to 365,500, its lowest [...]

As expected, the Federal Open Market Committee today left the Federal funds rate in a "range from 0 to 1/4 percent." The Fed funds rate has remained unchanged since late-2008 at its lowest level ever. The discount rate also was left [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association index of total mortgage applications rose 0.2% last week (67.3% y/y). The figures are close to the high in this cycle. Applications to refinance have led the gain. Last week, they rose 0.8% w/w and [...]

The value of construction put-in-place rose an expected 0.4% during June following a 1.6% May increase, initially reported as 0.9%. Private sector spending gained 0.7% (13.1% y/y) after a 2.1% May rise. Residential building continued [...]

Activity in the industrial sector continues to struggle. The July ISM Composite Index of industrial sector activity ticked up to 49.8 versus an unrevised 49.7 in June. The figure compared to Consensus expectations for 50.0 and remains [...]