Economy in Brief: August 2014

Chicago purchasing managers indicated that their August index of General Business Conditions jumped to 64.3 this month and more-than-reversed an unrevised drop to 52.6 in July. It was the highest level in three months and exceeded [...]

Today's data underscore the difficulty faced by the European Monetary Union. The unemployment rate remains high and declines are being posted generally only in the peripheral countries (the Netherlands, an exception to this) that have [...]

Personal consumption expenditures edged 0.1% lower last month (+3.6% y/y) following an unrevised 0.4% June increase. It was the first decline in six months. A 0.2% rise had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. When [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City reported that its August Composite index of 10th District factory sector activity deteriorated to 3, the lowest level since December. The composite index is an average of the production, new [...]

Initial claims for jobless insurance during the week ended August 23 slipped to 298,000 from 299,000 in the prior week, revised from 298,000. The latest figure compared to expectations for 300,000 claims in the Action Economics [...]

Pending sales of single-family homes jumped 3.3% (-2.1% y/y) during July, according the National Association of Realtors (NAR), following a little-revised 1.3% June decline. The increase was to the highest level since last August. [...]

The economic recovery garnered more strength than estimated earlier. The second GDP estimate for Q2 indicated a 4.2% rate of growth, revised up from 4.0%. The gain followed a 2.1% Q1 decline and beat expectations for 3.9% growth in [...]

The EU Commission indices for August have their EU and EMU headlines and sector headlines available, but country detail is only available for a few early reporters rather than for the full set of EMU members. The economic sentiment [...]