Economy in Brief

Consumers lost their mood for spending at the end of last month. According to the International Council of Shopping Centers-Goldman Sachs Index, store sales last week gave back with a 0.6% decline virtually all of the prior week's [...]

News of a rebound in the U.S. economy has generated the suspicion that more consumers will take to the roads on longer journeys. So far, the evidence of a recovery in driving is limited, but the energy market nevertheless has reacted [...]

The National Association of Realtors reported that pending sales of existing homes during April rose for the third consecutive month. The 6.7% m/m rise was to the highest level since last September and doubled the unrevised 3.2% March [...]

There's no real upward momentum driving the recent gains in construction spending, but it seems that an interim stabilization of earlier declines occurred this Spring. How long it will last is the question. For the second consecutive [...]

The manufacturing sector showed a further sign of modest improvement after its sharp decline in overall activity. The May composite index for the factory sector from the Institute for Supply Management rose to 42.8 from 40.1 in April. [...]

This May, the Hometrack Housing Survey, which processes information gathered by real estate agents in England and Wales, suggests that the decline in the property market may be reaching bottom. Three of the indicators that Hometrack [...]

The UK MFG PMI is up to a level of 45.37, the second highest reading in this group of EU/EMU reporters (Greece is the highest). The UK index also is 10% from its cycle high and 10% above its cycle low. The EMU measure is 17% from its [...]

The personal savings rate jumped last month to the highest level since early-1995. That rise may help explain earlier reports that confidence and sentiment are improving. Consumers are rebuilding their personal balance sheets, mending [...]