Economy in Brief

The employment cost index for private industry workers slowed to a 0.4% increase in Q3 total compensation from 0.5% growth in Q2. The year-on-year gain was 2.0%, a little bit better than Q2's 1.9%. For all civilian workers, the [...]

Real GDP increased 2.0% (SAAR) last quarter. The increase roughly matched Q2 as well as expectations for a 2.1% rise according to the Bloomberg survey. So far since the last recession GDP growth has averaged 2.8%, a figure that is [...]

EMU and EU sentiment rose and rose strongly in October. Sentiment rose in four of the five largest EU economies. Spain was the sole example of backtracking in October. We include in the table measures of the queue percentile standing [...]

Initial claims dropped sharply last week to 434,000, the lowest level since early-July. It's happened before. Initial claims for unemployment insurance would fall sharply, suggesting labor market improvement, only to subsequently [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that a 3.2% w/w rise in mortgage applications recovered some of the prior week's decline. The stabilization left the uptrend in applications intact. They were at their highest level since May [...]

Home sales remain in the doldrums. The Census Department reported September new home sales rose 6.6% to 307,000 from an unrevised 288,000. Nevertheless the latest remained near the series' low. Expectations were for September sales of [...]

Global liquidity is going nowhere. In EMU the nominal growth rates for money supply growth have moved up ever so slightly over the past 12-months. The same cannot be said of real money growth. Inflation adjusted credit growth has not [...]

Be not misled by the headline figure. The underlying trend of durable orders has weakened substantially. The Commerce Department reported that September orders surged 3.3% following a 1.0% August decline that was slightly less than [...]