Economy in Brief

Factory sector activity is improving but it's hardly robust. The Composite Index of factory sector activity from the Institute For Supply Management rose to 54.1 from a revised 53.1 in December. The latest reading roughly matched [...]

The EMU PMI rose by the better part of two points in January marking its second straight advance even though it continues to show overall industrial contraction for the sixth month in a row. Germany’s index is now showing a sector [...]

Job growth is continuing at a moderate pace. Private nonfarm payrolls rose 170,000 last month after a 292,000 December increase which was revised down from 325,000 reported last month. The figures come from the payroll processor [...]

Job growth is continuing at a moderate pace. Private nonfarm payrolls rose 170,000 last month after a 292,000 December increase which was revised down from 325,000 reported last month. The figures come from

China's trade balance declined by $29,544 million from $177,819 in 2010 to $148.275 in 2011. The trend in the trade surplus has been slightly downwards since global trade recovered after the financial crisis of 2008. Imports into [...]

House price weakness intensified during November. The seasonally adjusted Case-Shiller 20-City Home Price Index dropped 1.3% after a like decline in October, initially reported as -0.6%. Among the 20 cities, only three, Phoenix, [...]

The Conference Board's Index of Consumer Confidence fell during January by 3.7 points to 61.1 (seasonally adjusted, 1985=100) after notable increases during the prior two months. The latest decline disappointed Consensus estimates for [...]

The Conference Board's Index of Consumer Confidence gained again for December, adding 9.3 points to 64.5 (seasonally adjusted, 1985=100) and suggesting that November's 14.3-point surge was not a fluke. Consensus estimates had looked [...]