Economy in Brief

The boom in China is not about to bust. The weakness in China's industrial production and retail sales evident in April was reversed in May. After declining 0.57% in April from March, industrial production rose 0.53% in May from [...]

The U.S. Commerce Department reported that business inventories rose 0.8% in April after a revised 1.3% March increase, originally reported as 1.0%. Quick inventory accumulation nevertheless left the inventory-to-sales ratio of 1.26 [...]

The U.S. producer price index for finished goods increased just 0.2% last month, the weakest rise since July. The gain roughly matched Consensus expectations for a 0.1% uptick. Offsetting each other were a 1.5% rise in energy prices [...]

Total retail & food service sales slipped 0.2% last month after a 0.3% April increase and a 0.8% March gain, both revised down slightly from 0.5% and 0.9%, respectively. The May decline roughly matched Consensus expectations for a [...]

The National Federation of Independent Business indicated that its index of small business optimism fell to 90.0 from an unrevised 91.2 in April. The latest remained the lowest level since September. Deterioration amongst the sub- [...]

The Economic and Social Research Institute of Japan released, today, data on machinery orders for April. Although total orders were up 3.1% from March, the HEADLINE series--Private Sector Orders excluding Volatile Orders (ships and [...]

The U.S. Government's budget deficit so far this fiscal year totaled $927.4B, according to figures released late-Friday by the U.S. Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget. The monthly deficit in May deepened slightly m/m to [...]

Pricing strength receded, at least temporarily, amongst internationally traded goods last month. Overall U.S. import prices rose just 0.2% after a little-revised 2.1% April increase. Nevertheless, the gain was stronger than Consensus [...]