Economy in Brief

Service sector activity backpedaled last month. The Composite Index for the service and construction sectors from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) fell to 56.0 in March versus an unrevised 57.3 during February and 56.8 in [...]

Employment growth is continuing at a moderate rate. That's indicated by the 209,000 increase in March private-sector payrolls reported by the payroll processor Automatic Data Processing (ADP) and economic consultants Macroeconomic [...]

Sales of light motor vehicles dipped m/m during March but remained near the four-year high. Unit vehicle sales fell 4.8% m/m to 14.37M (AR) during March according to Autodata Corporation. That sales rate was up 10.0% versus one year [...]

The Euro-Area is in a very tight spot. The ECB has a real policy quandary. It seems that more economists are coming to the inevitable conclusion that the Zone countries go together like oil and water. Only if you continue to 'agitate' [...]

The index of industrial production in Brazil rose 1.3% in February after having declined 1.5% in January. Although the index was still 3.3% below a year ago, the rise was greater than expected and a welcome reversal of trend that may [...]

Orders in the manufacturing sector recovered 1.3% (9.0% y/y) during February and reversed a little-revised 1.1% January slump. The rise reflected a 2.4% gain in orders for durable goods. That was little-changed from the advance report [...]

The rise has been relentless. Pump prices for regular gasoline rose another two cents last week to $3.94 per gallon, their highest since last May. The gain has been seventy cents (22%) since year-end. Reduced seasonal demand typically [...]

The Q1 Tankan results for large Japanese enterprises show a steady manufacturing sector and a slightly improved non-manufacturing sector. Medium-sized firms also show no MFG sector improvement with an even larger non MFG sector [...]