Economy in Brief

According to the outplacement firm of Challenger, Grey & Christmas the level of layoffs during July rose slightly to 41,676, the third increase in as many months. Despite the latest upward drift in layoffs, the level remains down by [...]

The U.S. service sector is holding up despite slower growth elsewhere. The July Composite Index for the service and construction sectors from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) improved slightly to 54.3 after its June dip to [...]

The job market expanded again last month, but its rate of gain has been minimal. The payroll processor ADP, in their latest National Employment Report, indicated that private nonfarm payroll levels rose during July by 42,000 after a [...]

An improved trend has become apparent in the U.S. vehicle sales figures. Unit sales of light vehicles during July rose 8.8% from June to 12.06M units (SAAR) versus 11.08M in June. Sales were the highest since last August and the Cash- [...]

Retail sales are still digging their way of their recession hole but with volume flat in June progress ahs come to a halt. Momentum also has begun to slip as three-month growth in the sales volume index is now negative. Motor vehicle [...]

Wheat prices, as shown in the first chart, have risen sharply over the past few weeks as the implications of the severe weather conditions in many wheat growing countries for their wheat crop have become clear. (These are daily cash [...]

For the second consecutive month factory inventories fell modestly. The June 0.1% decline was not, however, broad-based. In fact, the decline was limited to petroleum and chemicals where prices fell. Inventories at petroleum [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending sales of existing single-family homes fell again during June. The 2.6% m/m drop left them down roughly one-third versus April. Home buying activity still seems to be [...]