Economy in Brief

At least vehicle sales are holding up and not slipping. Unit sales of light vehicles grudgingly moved higher last month, up 2.5% m/m to 11.76M units (SAAR) and recovering the 0.6% dip during August. Though modest, the sales gain was [...]

The value of construction-put-in-place increased in August by 0.4%, following a downwardly revised 1.4% decline in July and an upwardly revised 0.6% rise in June. The August result compared with Consensus forecasts of a 0.4% decline, [...]

Consumers don't feel terrific, but at least their mood isn't deteriorating. The University of Michigan reported that its September Consumer Sentiment reading of 68.2 held near the levels of the prior two months. Also, the figure [...]

Factory sector activity expanded moderately last month, though its rate of growth actually slipped from August. The September Composite Index from the Institute for Supply Management fell to 54.4 from 56.3 pulling the index to its [...]

German retail sales ticked up ex-autos in August after two moths of sliding. Real ex-auto retail sales fell in August for the second month in a row. By category nominal retail sales are up for food and clothing and footwear over [...]

Personal income firmed during August and posted a 0.5% gain following an unrevised 0.2% July increase. The increase beat Consensus expectations for a 0.3% gain.However, rather than reflecting some broad-based improvement in earnings, [...]

The headline rate of inflation that the ECB puts a ceiling on rose by 0.2% in Sept after rising by 0.4% in August. The three-month pace of inflation is an excessive 2.4% with the Yr/Yr pace at 1.8%, still below the ECB's self-imposed [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell 16,000 last week to 453,000 from an upwardly revised 469,000 in the week prior (originally 465,000).The 4-week moving average fell slightly to 463,250. The latest weekly decline was [...]