Economy in Brief: August 2013

Both the overall EU and the EMU measures of Sentiment rose sharply in August 2013 compared to July. The EU index rose to 98.1 from 95. Going back to 1985 this is the ninth largest month-to-month change in that overall index. Similarly [...]

Despite a late-month improvement, the Reuters/University of Michigan survey of consumer sentiment during August fell sharply to 82.1 from an unrevised 85.1 in July. The mid-month reading of sentiment was 80.0. The level of sentiment [...]

Personal income in July matched expectations and ticked 0.1% higher (3.3% y/y) following an unrevised 0.3% June rise. May's increase was, however, reduced to 0.3% from 0.4%. Holding back income's increase was a 0.3% decline (+3.4% [...]

Italian business and consumer confidence both improved in August. However, the relative state of the confidence of businesses and consumers is still quite poor. When we take the current month's standing for confidence and place it in [...]

Initial unemployment insurance claims edged down to 331,000 (-11.7% y/y) during the week of August 24 from 337,000 in the week prior, initially reported as 336,000. The latest figure nearly matched an expected 332,000 in the Action [...]

U.S. economic growth of 2.5% last quarter (AR, 1.6% y/y) was more robust than last month's estimated gain of 1.7%. The figure also slightly outpaced the expected 2.3% gain in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The foreign trade and [...]

Apollo 17? The understated words that informed the world of the serious risk that the US space mission called `Apollo 13' faced came with the simple phrase, "Houston, we have a problem." Unfortunately, no one in Europe is telling [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending sales of single-family homes during July declined 1.3% m/m but remained up 6.7% versus July of last year. The monthly decline followed an unrevised 0.4% June slip. [...]