Economy in Brief

The title to this month's write-up is exactly the same as last month since there is little to distinguish the two periods... even the bottom-line interpretation is the same. The job market continued soft, though slightly improved, [...]

Revised labor productivity growth last quarter was reduced, as expected, based on last week's lowered estimate of real GDP growth. Nonfarm business sector productivity fell 1.8% (AR) after the initial estimate of a 0.9% decline. It [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending sales of existing single-family homes improved during July. A 5.2% m/m rise brought them to the highest level since April after which they fell sharply with the removal [...]

The labor market has yet to show signs of strength, but at least its not showing much sequential deterioration either. Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell 6,000 last week to 472,000 from an upwardly revised 478,000 in the [...]

Unit sales of light vehicles showed no forward m/m momentum in August and fell sharply with the comparison to last year's Cash-For-Clunkers sales program. Sales slipped 0.6% to 11.47M units (SAAR) following July's 3.3% rise. (Past [...]

The news from the construction sector continues bleak. Overall, the value of construction-put-in-place fell 1.0% during July after earlier months' figures were revised sharply lower. The July decline was double the Consensus [...]

According to the outplacement firm of Challenger, Grey & Christmas the level of layoffs during August fell to 34,768, the smallest number since June of 2000. The level remains down by more than one-half from last year. Planned layoffs [...]

Deterioration in factory sector activity paused last month. The August Composite Index from the Institute for Supply Management rose to 56.3 from 55.2 in July after three consecutive months of decline. Consensus expectations had been [...]