Economy in Brief

Employment in Germany rose 52,000 in March, following gains of 46,000 and 76,000 in February and January, respectively. This was the 13th consecutive monthly increase in employment, bringing it up 1.5% (annualized) from February 2006. [...]

Factory orders struck back in March with an upward revision to durable goods orders and more strength in nondurables than anyone expected. While the three-month growth rate for orders is still severely negative, the outturn for the [...]

Factory orders struck back in March with an upward revision to durable goods orders and more strength in nondurables than anyone expected. While the three-month growth rate for orders is still severely negative, the outturn for the [...]

Periodically I run the table below just to see if people are awake. But seriously The table contains a wealth of data on the ISM and what it is doing. The ‘percentile’ and ‘% of average’ columns at the right of the table put the raw [...]

Periodically I run the table below just to see if people are awake. But seriously The table contains a wealth of data on the ISM and what it is doing. The ‘percentile’ and ‘% of average’ columns at the right of the table put the raw [...]

Economic sentiment in the Euro Area is still at its highest level since January, 2001, in spite of a slight decline--one basis point from March to 111.0 in April-- The economic sentiment indicator is so constructed that its long term [...]

Real construction spending was up by 0.2% in March. Nominal construction spending was revised from a weak 0.3% in February to 1.5% gain. As a result construction trends are looking a lot better. Even the drain to GDP from residential [...]

The Chicago Fed regional activity index fell sharply from 61.7 to 52.9 in April. At 52.9 the index is below its median value of 54.7 since 1968. Orders are low by comparison with their historic median. Production is, however, quite [...]