Economy in Brief

After hitting the high last June the pump price for regular gasoline has been roughly unchanged. Last week, the price slipped to $2.66 and compares to $2.69 reached during June. Nevertheless, prices remained up 41% from last year. [...]

Home sales recovered during December after falling sharply in November with the (since-extended) expiration of an $8,000 first-time home buyers tax credit. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that December pending home [...]

Home sales recovered during December after falling sharply in November with the (since-extended) expiration of an $8,000 first-time home buyers tax credit. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that December pending home [...]

Russia announced today that real GDP declined 7.9% in 2009, somewhat less than the 8.5% the government had estimated earlier, but still the deepest decline among the BRIC countries--Brazil, Russia, India and China as can be seen in [...]

Euro-Area recovery continues - The EU/EMU nation PMIs continue to show recovery. Greece, with its economic difficulties and huge fiscal problems, already is showing signs of an uphill battle. Greece’s MFG PMIs are lower over three [...]

Construction activity moved lower, again. During December construction outlays fell 1.2% after a 1.2% November shortfall that was double the initial estimate. The latest decline was double the Consensus estimate. The worst of the [...]

The pace of improvement in the U.S. factory sector picked up steam in the new year. The National Association of Purchasing Management reported that its January composite index showed unexpected strength, for the second consecutive [...]

The Commerce Department's latest report on consumer income & spending indicated that times were never worse than in 2009. Cutbacks in employment prompted a record 1.4% annual decline (it's never before fallen y/y), though modest [...]