Economy in Brief

Consumers continue to shy away from the chain-store checkout counter. Last week, chain store sales ticked up all of 0.1% after a 0.3% gain the prior week. These increases, however, left the October average down 0.7%. The decline [...]

Sideways has typified the gasoline price trend for some time. The pump price for regular gasoline slipped to $2.81 per gallon last week, down one penny w/w. Prices have been slightly above or below the current level, but are close to [...]

The value of construction put-in-place recovered 0.5% during September following a downwardly-revised 0.2% August down-tick. The figure was slightly better than Consensus expectations for a 0.5% decline for last month. These recent [...]

The UK MFG sector showed a bit of spunk as the index for October rose, ending a string of declining values and surprising market forecasters. The UK index for October is back above not just its September value but its August value as [...]

Purchasing Managers' surveys of Asian manufacturing for October show weakness in Japan, Taiwan and Korea, but strength in India and China. The results of the surveys are expressed in the form of diffusion indexes. Results above 50% [...]

Today's release that the Composite Index from the Institute for Supply Management rose to 56.9 last month lifted it back to its highest since May. Moreover, the gain beat Consensus expectations for near-stability at 54.0. Finally, the [...]

Personal income slipped an unexpected 0.1% during September following a 0.4% August increase that was downwardly revised. A 0.2% increase had been expected for last month. The troubling part of the report was the slight dip in wage & [...]

Were we nuts to have been optimistic on Europe because its performance had held up in the face of austerity measures implemented across the continent? Is German retailing suddenly become this weak and is it slipping into the soup? [...]