Economy in Brief: January 2019

The Chicago Purchasing Managers Business Barometer remained at an elevated level of 65.4 in December...... The MNI Chicago Report is produced by MNI in partnership with ISM-Chicago. The survey covers a sample of over 200 purchasing [...]

The China manufacturing PMI continues to be weak; it signals contraction in January albeit at a pace ever so slightly improved compared to December. It marks the first back-to-back PMI readings below 50 since January-February of 2016. [...]

The government shutdown delayed the report covering November new single-family home sales, but the information in the report is worthy of note. New home sales jumped 16.9% (-7.7% y/y) to 657,000 (SAAR) and recovered October's 8.3% [...]

The employment cost index (ECI) for civilian workers rose 0.7% in Q4 2018 following a 0.8% Q3 gain. A 0.8% rise had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The gains combined to lift y/y compensation growth to 2.9%, the [...]

Initial claims for jobless insurance jumped unexpectedly to 253,000 in week ended January 26 from 200,000 in the week before; that earlier number was revised up by 1,000. This latest is the largest number of claims since September 30, [...]

The Chicago Purchasing Managers Business Barometer dropped to a two-year low of 56.7 in January from a downwardly-revised 63.8 in December. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected 62.0. The Chicago Purchasing Managers figures [...]

The Federal Open Market Committee voted unanimously at today's meeting to leave the federal funds rate target in a range between 2.25% and 2.50%. The action was expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The Fed indicated after [...]

The January readings for the EMU on the EU Commission indexes show ongoing weakness. The overall EU index now resides in the 72nd percentile of its historic queue of data, a reasonably firm and comfortable reading but not an [...]