Economy in Brief

Sentiment among the Big Five EU countries saw improvements in three of those five. Set backs in June were experienced in the UK and in France. For France its the second drop in a row. After seeing drops in four of six of the largest [...]

French households continue to express dissatisfaction with their lot. The June overall Household Confidence Indicator published by INSEE (Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economique) declined another point to -39% [...]

The pump price for regular gasoline of $2.76 per gallon last week was its highest in five weeks. Also, prices were up more than three-quarters since the December 2008 low. Yesterday, the spot market price for a gallon of regular [...]

The Conference Board indicated that consumer confidence wavered this month. Their consumer confidence index fell 15.6% m/m to 52.9 and gave up the prior two months' increase. Nevertheless, confidence remained improved from last year. [...]

Consumer spending overall is holding up but shopping at chain stores is barely treading water. Sales last week rose a healthy 2.1% to their highest level since early-May. The increase, however, left the June average down slightly from [...]

Home prices improved during April. Seasonally adjusted, the Case-Shiller Home Price Index inched up 0.4% from March after two months of slight decline. However, home prices remain depressed and have fallen 29.1% since the May 2006 [...]

Government spending program had been underpinning Japan retail sales until this month when sales fell sharply. The month-to-month drop was the first since December 2009 and the largest since February 2005. It was the smallest Yr/Yr [...]

The Bank of New Zealand reported a decline in overall business confidence today. The Bank surveys firms engaged in retail, manufacturing, agriculture, construction and the service industries and publishes the results for each industry [...]