Economy in Brief

The pump price for regular gasoline fell another eight cents to $3.57 per gallon last week, the lowest level since mid-March. Since last month's peak, prices have fallen 39 cents but remain up nearly one-third versus last year. Pump [...]

Business confidence in manufacturing in the Netherlands is measured by the difference between those who see improvement and those who see deterioration in the outlook. Until the recession of 2008, the difference had never been more [...]

Personal income rose 0.3% last month following a 0.3% increase during April, initially reported as 0.4%. A 0.4% gain had been expected. Disposable income gained 0.2%, the same as in April. Adjusted for prices, however, growth was [...]

In its "final" estimate of economic growth last quarter, the Commerce Department still didn't find much that was materially different from its "advance" reading. Real GDP grew 1.9% (SAAR), the weakest growth since Q2'10. The Q1 [...]

Germany's well-regarded IFO survey shows there has been minimal erosion in the various German key economic sectors. All sectors stand in the top 20% or in a much better position of their historic ranges of hi-low values. When ranked [...]

New orders for durable goods improved 1.9% last month following an April decline of 2.7%, initially reported as -3.6%. The latest increase matched Consensus expectations. Transportation sector orders rebounded 5.8% (14.7% y/y) as [...]

The early read on the European PMIS is called the flash release. This month the indicators are flashing warning signs as growth is fading very fast and ECB head Trichet sees red warning signals of his own. Every picture tells a story, [...]

Total new home sales in May slipped 2.1% m/m to 319,000 (AR) from a little-revised 326,000 in April. The latest figure beat expectations for 310,000 sales according to Action Economics. The figure is consistent with others suggesting [...]