Economy in Brief

In Europe the trade picture deteriorated even as exports recovered strongly from their slump in July. Goods exports rose by 1% on the month, shaking off a 0.2% decline in July. Imports of goods, a series that had declined by a sharp [...]

Pricing is stuck in the moderate demand and abundant supply environment of the U.S. economy. Consumer prices rose 0.1% last month and failed to meet expectations for a 0.2% rise. The weakness of the increase lowered the y/y change to [...]

The good news is that consumers are spending, but the bad news is that their wallets are hardly open wide. Retail spending rose last month by 0.6% after an upwardly revised 0.7% August increase. The last was slightly higher than [...]

The labor market is showing halting improvement. Last week, initial claims for unemployment insurance rose 13,000 to 462,000 after a 7,000 decline (revised from -11,000) during the prior week. Since February, the level of claims has [...]

The August U.S. foreign trade deficit deteriorated to $46.3B following July's improvement to a little-revised $42.6B. Nevertheless, the Q3 deficits stand to roughly equal those of Q2 and, as a result, exert little drag on GDP growth. [...]

Trends under the surface - The final inflation number for the Zone in September is not yet in and core readings are missing as well. But we can look at the inflation trend by perusing the various trends in a number of 'early- [...]

The U.S. Producer Price Index for finished goods again turned in a strong performance last month. The 0.4% increase repeated its August gain and left the y/y comparison at 4.0%, about where it's been this all year. The monthly rise [...]

Consumers just aren't in a buying mood. Last week, chain store sales recovered the prior week's decline and that sideways movement emphasizes the sales weakness since July. Since then sales have fallen 2.3%. During the last ten years [...]