Economy in Brief

Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell much more than expected last week. Claims in the prior week were revised slightly higher. Seasonal adjustment difficulties have contributed to the erratic behavior of initial claims in [...]

Durable goods orders last month fell unexpectedly and the gain in October was revised lower. Consensus expectations had been for a 0.6% rise. Orders for nondefense capital goods fell sharply, reversing most of the sharp October gain [...]

Personal income (4.3% AR, YTD) rose slightly more than expected last month. It was the fourth consecutive 0.3% monthly gain in income. Growth in wage and salary disbursements has been relatively firm recently, up 0.4% last month and [...]

Real GDP last quarter was little revised, as expected. Component revisions also were largely technical. Year to date growth in real GDP has been 3.4% (AR). The previously reported strong growth in corporate profits after tax was [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell less than expected last week from the elevated level of the week prior. Claims in the prior week were revised slightly higher. The latest figure is for the survey period for December [...]

The U.S. foreign trade deficit improved more than expected in October. September's deficit was revised lower due to lessened imports. Consensus expectations had been for a October deficit of $36.5B. Declines in exports and imports [...]

Inflation in the United Kingdom as measured by the Retail Price index rose 2.7% in November from a year ago, the sharpest rise since January 2001. Prices of housing expenditures, which rose 6.4%, and gasoline and oil, which rose 4.1%, [...]

The Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) rose just 0.1% last month. The gain was as expected. Excluding food and energy, prices also rose as expected and the rise was equal to the YTD average. Tobacco prices (-0.0%) fell for the second [...]