Economy in Brief

Last week, the pump price of regular gasoline again fell an additional six cents to $3.61 per gallon. Over the last nine weeks, prices have fallen thirty three cents (-4.5% y/y) and retraced roughly one-third of the run-up early this [...]

Spain is in trouble once again. Capital is leaving the country and interest rates are rising, as can be seen in the attached chart. The 10 year bond rate was 6.5% on June 1st and probably higher today. The European Central Bank, the [...]

During April, orders in the manufacturing sector fell 0.6% (+3.5% y/y) versus expectations for a 0.3% rise. The drop added to a 2.1% decline during March, revised from 1.5%. Last month's figure reflected a 1.1% shortfall in [...]

It was a further give-back from last year's strength. Unit sales of light motor vehicles during May fell 4.4% from April to 13.78M (SAAR), according to Autodata Corporation. Sales have fallen meaningfully in two of the last three [...]

The table above focuses on changes in the PMI indices for a number of key EMU and EU members. In May only Italy, Greece and Ireland did not register drops in their respective MFG PMI gauges. Over three months the EMU MFG PMI is lower [...]

Personal income increased 0.2% (2.8% y/y) in April after 0.4% March, which was unrevised from the initial report last month and modestly weaker than consensus expectations for 0.3%. The April rise included a 0.2% rise (3.2% y/y) in [...]

The May ISM Composite Index of industrial sector activity fell to 53.5 from an unrevised 54.8 in April. The decline compared to Consensus expectations for a slip to 54.0. A figure above the break-even level of 50 continued to indicate [...]

Difficulty in seasonally adjusting for the near-record winter temperatures may have been at work. Nevertheless, nonfarm payrolls grew just 69,000 last month following a downwardly revised 77,000 April increase, originally reported as [...]