Economy in Brief

D-flation - Japan continues to show the effects of deflation. Prices fell by 0.4% in May, an accelerated drop from -0.1% in each of the last two months. Less food and energy prices fell by 0.2% in May a bigger drop than the -0.1% in [...]

For the second time, 1Q '10 real GDP growth was revised slightly lower. The latest 2.7% figure compares to 3.0% estimated last month and 3.2% in the advance report. A lessened rate of growth in domestic final demand was behind the [...]

Orders in the euro-area rose by 0.9% a very good showing after gains of 2.6% in February, 5.1% in March and now 0.9% in April. As a result of the sharp gain late in the first quarter the Q2 level has been boosted to show a 34% annual [...]

The CASH Index is produced by the RBC Financial Group. It stands for Consumer Attitudes & Spending By Households. And what the overall index does is move much like the University of Michigan's Index of Consumer Sentiment, but its [...]

Volatility around a sideways trend continued as the pattern, since December, for initial claims for unemployment insurance. Claims fell 19,000 last week to 457,000 following a 17,000 gain during the prior week. Consensus expectations [...]

For the second month in a row the durable goods orders numbers from the Commerce Department were heavily influenced by a swing in commercial aircraft bookings, last month to the downside. The advance reading of durable goods orders [...]

The PMIs are entering a more mature stage of the expansion and steady monthly increases will no longer be the rule nor will such monthly fluctuations be a 'bad signal,' just the result of normal fluctuation. From April to December of [...]

New home sales fell by nearly one-third last month versus April with the end to the Federal government's $8,000 home-buyer tax credit. New home sales at 300,000 followed a downwardly revised 446,000 during April. It was a record low [...]