Economy in Brief

The transportation sector caused huge volatility in durable manufacturing last month. New orders for durable goods fell 3.6% and reversed virtually all of the 4.4% March gain. Past figures were revised as part of the benchmark changes [...]

The retailing portion of the CBI distributive trades index weakened slightly in May as the Yr/Yr sales index fell to +18 from +21. At that mark the index stands in the 65th percentile of its high/low range. What is most disturbing in [...]

Recently, we've noted that investors and purchasing managers in Germany have begun to lower their expectations for the growth of the economy over the next six months. It appears that it is not so much that they expect a sharp fall in [...]

The consumer may have grown tired of spending this month. After strong sales gains in March & April, chain store sales fell 1.0% last week after a 2.0% drop during the week prior. The declines pulled the month-to-date average 1.8% [...]

Total new home sales in April rose 7.3% m/m to 323,000 (AR). The latest figure slightly beat expectations for 303,000 sales according to Action Economics. Despite the latest rise, new home sales still have fallen by three-quarters [...]

Weakening demand is affecting prices in the energy market. Last week, the pump price for regular gasoline fell to $3.85 per gallon though it remained up roughly one-third y/y. Moreover, pump prices usually start rising this time of [...]

Markit Economics released, today, the flash estimates derived from their May surveys of purchasing managers in China, France, Germany and the Euros Area, as a whole. Data for China are available only for the manufacturing sector while [...]

The list of indicators suggesting that the economy's forward momentum has waned continues to lengthen. The Chicago Fed reported that its National Activity Index (CFNAI) retraced its earlier improvement and fell to -0.45 in April from [...]