Economy in Brief

Petroleum prices have nowhere to go but up. Last week, the pump price for regular gasoline jumped eleven cents to $3.79 per gallon, the highest level since September, 2008 and more-than-double the December, 2008 low of $1.61. [...]

Surging oil prices lifted overall U.S. import prices last month. Prices jumped 2.7% after an unrevised 1.4% February increase. The gain was stronger than Consensus expectations for a 2.1% rise. It was paced by a 10.5% surge in [...]

The U.S. foreign trade deficit improved during February to $45.8B versus $47.0B in January, revised from $46.3B reported initially. Expectations had been for $44.0B according to Action Economics. Exports fell 1.4% following a 2.6% [...]

The National Federation of Independent Business indicated that its index of small business optimism fell to 91.9 in March from an unrevised 94.5 in February. The latest was the lowest level since October. Deterioration amongst the [...]

France and Italy continue to see their industrial production expand. France is showing more staying power as Italy show signs of slippage in its growth. This is their first real divergence in this cycle. France is showing persistent [...]

Four more countries reported February data for Industrial production data today--India and Malaysia, representing the Far East; and France and Italy, representing the Euro Area. On the basis of the country data it appears that [...]

While the ECB is hiking rates on marginal inflation risks as the BOE is holding back while inflation rages- at least at the PPI level. At the same time the CPI is hardly to be construed as tame as its twelve month pace is 3.3% and its [...]

During February, consumer credit expanded by $6.7B after a revised $4.5B increase during January, initially reported as $4.0B. Credit has risen strongly during the last five months following declines from 2008 through 2010. Non- [...]