Economy in Brief

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that its October Empire State Factory Index of General Business Conditions improved to 15.73 which was the highest level since June. The figure suggests positive growth in factory sector [...]

Businesses continued to add inventories in August, and the inventory/sales ratio made it to 1.27, the highest since November 2009. Total stocks were up 0.6% in August, following July's 1.1% gain. This sum of manufacturers, wholesalers [...]

Consumer sentiment is stuck: for a fourth consecutive month, the University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment has hovered within a range of 1.1 points and eased just slightly in the latest, mid-October reading to 67.9 from 68.2 [...]

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. [...]