Economy in Brief: July 2011

The employment cost index for private industry workers rose 0.8% in Q2 for total compensation versus an unrevised 0.5% Q1 rise. The Q2 increase beat expectations for a 0.5% rise as tallied by Bloomberg. The four-quarter gain of 2.3% [...]

Retail sales (ex-autos) in Germany are gyrating, showing sharp fluctuations in the last two months. While retail sales soared in June vehicle registrations tanked. When retail sales fell in May vehicle registrations fell. There is no [...]

The Commerce Department reported that real GDP grew just 1.3% (SAAR) last quarter. The figure was disappointing for several reasons. It fell short of Consensus expectations for 1.7% growth and it was the softest reading since Q2'09. [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending sales of existing single-family homes rose 2.4% last month after an unrevised 8.2% May increase. Despite the recent improvement, sales for the second quarter fell 3.4% [...]

EU sentiment is on the downslope. The rate of increase is slowing steadily on its Yr/Yr comparisons (see chart) and the monthly numbers are clustering around negative readings. The index standings are no longer high to moderate. [...]

In a sign of labor market healing, initial unemployment insurance claims fell last week to 398,000 versus a revised 422,000 during the week prior, initially reported as 418,000. The latest figure was the lowest since the first week of [...]

Released yesterday, chain store sales rose 0.3% last week for the fifth consecutive weekly gain. The increase pulled sales to a record high and up 3.7% in July versus June. During the last ten years there has been a 66% correlation [...]

Overall mortgage applications fell 5.0% last week. The decline left applications for the month down 5.2% versus June. Applications to refinance fell 5.5% and were down 7.1% for the month. Applications to purchase a home were off 3.8% [...]