Economy in Brief

At today's Federal Open Market Committee meeting the target interest rate for Federal funds was held steady at 5.25%. The rate was increased to the current level at the FOMC meeting in late June. Voting against the decision for the [...]

Pump prices for regular unleaded gasoline slipped a penny last week to an average $2.29 per gallon after the nickel increase during the prior week. That left this month's average price for gasoline up seven cents from the November [...]

Last week chain store sales, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)-UBS, recovered about a third of the prior period's collapse with a 1.0% rise. So far in December sales are 2.0% below the November average [...]

The U.S. foreign trade deficit in October dropped to the lowest level since July of 2005. The $58.9B shortfall compared to an unrevised $64.3B during September and was shallower than Consensus expectations for a deficit of $63.0B. A [...]

At today's Federal Open Market Committee meeting the target interest rate for Federal funds was held steady at 5.25%. The rate was increased to the current level at the FOMC meeting in late June. Voting against the decision for the [...]

Germany released data today for the third quarter balance of payments on a seasonally adjusted basis and for the month of October on a seasonally unadjusted basis. Late last week monthly data on total trade and trade in goods were [...]

For October, the Leading Index of the major 7 OECD economies rose 0.2% after an unrevised 0.4% increase during September. It was the third increase following three consecutive months of decline and the index's six month growth rate [...]

For October, the Leading Index of the major 7 OECD economies rose 0.2% after an unrevised 0.4% increase during September. It was the third increase following three consecutive months of decline and the index's six month growth rate [...]