Economy in Brief

U.S. consumer credit usage dropped during November for the third month in the last four. The Federal Reserve reported that consumer credit outstanding fell $8.0 billion m/m after a $2.8B October decline that was slightly shallower [...]

Last week, initial claims for unemployment insurance fell again. The 24,000 week-to-week decline to 467,000 followed a revised decline of 98,000 during Christmas week. The latter decline was widely attributed to an aberrant seasonal [...]

Last week, initial claims for unemployment insurance fell again. The 24,000 week-to-week decline to 467,000 followed a revised decline of 98,000 during Christmas week. The latter decline was widely attributed to an aberrant seasonal [...]

Short term inflation: dropping like a feather in a vacuum Like the HICP report the EMU PPI report shows a sharp ongoing drop in prices. Inflation has been cut sharply over short horizons. The headline (X construction) is dropping at [...]

Chain store sales last week recovered all of the previous week's decline with a 1.4% increase, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers-Goldman Sachs Index. The rise lifted sales 1.7% above their December average [...]

Challenger, Grey & Christmas reported that job cut announcements in December fell back slightly to 166,348 following the indication of 181,671 layoffs during November. Despite the drop, however, the number of layoffs was nearly four [...]

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, the total number of mortgage applications fell a slight 8.2% last week after having been unchanged during the prior week. Nevertheless, applications remained firm to take advantage of [...]

The payroll processor ADP indicated in its latest National Employment Report that December private nonfarm payrolls fell 693,000. The decline followed a revised 476,000 November drop that was much deeper than the initial estimate. The [...]