Economy in Brief: June 2020

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• The rise is disappointing. • Component increases are broad-based. The Chicago Purchasing Managers Business Barometer improved to 36.6 during June from 32.3 in May. Despite the increase, the figure remained below its high of 66.5 in [...]

• The reading of current conditions increases sharply. • Expectations improve again. • All age groups feel better. Broad improvement in consumer confidence in June reflected re-opening of the economy and fewer claims for unemployment [...]

• Gasoline prices increase with seasonal demand. • Crude oil prices continue to improve. • Natural gas prices rise moderately. The price for regular gasoline rose to $2.17 per gallon (-19.9% y/y) in the week ended June 29 from $2.13 [...]

The EMU indexes made sharp rebounds in June but are still weak in their respective historic queues of values. Construction has been the relative strongest sector at its 62.1 percentile and nothing else quite close to that. The next [...]

• Component increases are broad-based. • Expectations also improve broadly. The Dallas Federal Reserve reported in its Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey that the General Business Activity Index increased to -6.1% from the near-record [...]

• Pending home sales rise to three-month high. • Improvement spread throughout the country. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending home sales surged 44.3% during May to the highest level since February. [...]

Stimulus polices in the EMU have finally taken hold among financial variables and both money and credit measures are growing faster- much faster. Will actual economic stimulus result from this? EMU money supply (M2) has progressed [...]