Economy in Brief

A soft labor market continued last month to exact its toll on income growth. Personal income during June was unchanged after a downwardly revised 0.3% May gain. A 0.2% increase had been expected. Revisions to the last three years' [...]

Yr/Yr the PPI is mostly holding to its gains but the monthly index has gone flat for two months running. Inflation to the extent it percolates anywhere is still present mostly in the intermediate goods sector where commodity prices [...]

The French industrial sector continues to improve despite a weak construction component. The index (2005=100) of Industrial Turnover (sales), excluding construction, declined from a peak of 117.2 in April, 2008 to 100.8 in March of [...]

Construction activity just can't develop forward momentum. Overall, the value of construction-put-in-place inched up just 0.1% during June following a 1.0% May decline that was deeper than initially reported. The June slip was in line [...]

The loss of forward momentum behind the factory sector's recovery is clear, though activity still is expanding. The July Composite Index from the Institute for Supply Management fell to 55.2 from 56.2 in June. The latest figure was [...]

Consumers remain glum. The full-month July reading of consumer sentiment, as measured by the University of Michigan, dropped sharply from June to 67.8, though that was up slightly from the mid-month reading. The latest was the lowest [...]

The employment cost index for private industry workers gave back some its recent improvement with a 0.5% gain last quarter. Nevertheless, the increase remained improved from the 0.2% low early last year. (The series dates back to [...]

It's been a disappointing tale for the reports of U.S. real GDP growth since the current recovery began. The advance figure for 2Q showed growth of 2.4%, which was slightly below expectations for 2.7%. It was the fourth straight [...]