Economy in Brief

The OECD trend restored leading indicators show that a slowdown is in progress. The OECD likes to look at its indices in terms of changes over six-months and on that basis the overall OECD, the OECD-7 and the US OECD LEIs all are not [...]

In their attempts to find safe havens for their wealth in unsettled financial environments, investors have often looked to foreign currencies. Recently the Australian Dollar, the Norwegian Kroner, the Japanese Yen and the Swiss Franc [...]

On Friday, the Commerce Department reported that sales in the wholesale sector were essentially unchanged during July after a 0.6% jump in June. A 0.8% increase had been generally expected. Holding back the increase was a 1.1% decline [...]

Industrial commodity prices recently have found stability after their downdraft one month ago. At 170.4, the latest price index reading from the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research (FIBER), which covers [...]

Germany persistently is one of the low inflation countries in the Euro-Area. Its inflation rate in August fell to 2.3% Yr/Yr as its price index was flat month-to-month. Jean-Claude Trichet is trying to have some patience with the [...]

German exports fell by 1.8% in July after falling by 1.2% in June. But the preceding months found German exports very volatile rising by 4.3% in May falling by 5.6% in April and surging by 7.2% in March and so on. With volatility like [...]

The foreign trade deficit narrowed to $44.8B in July from a revised $51.6B in June, initially reported as $53.1B. Expectations had been for $51.0B, according to Action Economics. Exports jumped 3.6% and more-than-recovered the June [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose to 414,000 last week from 412,000 during the week prior (revised from 409,000). The latest figure exceeded expectations for 405,000 claims according to the Action Economics survey. The [...]