Economy in Brief: 2011

The outplacement firm of Challenger, Grey & Christmas reported that job cut announcements during September surged following their August dip. The jump to 115,730 left them more-than double last year. The jump in announcements was led [...]

The Composite Index for the service and construction sectors from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) was 53.0 versus an unrevised 53.3 during August. The figure matched Consensus expectations. Since the series' inception in [...]

The chart demonstrates that the MFG sectors in the across EMU are very tightly connected. The have very similar cycles to the US, too and as the MFG sector begins to sag in this now-weakened recovery period we are seeing the swale in [...]

According to the payroll processor Automatic Data Processing (ADP) and economic consultants Macroeconomic Advisers, private nonfarm payrolls grew 91,000 following an 89,000 increase during August, revised from 91,000. The latest beat [...]

The excess of optimists over pessimists among Chinese Purchasing Managers in the service industries rose to 53.00 in September from 50.64 in August foreshadowing increased output. Yesterday it was reported that the there was a slight [...]

Inflation in Euro-Area PPI prices is starting to settle down- and just in time. With its Greek tragedy playing out (well, it isn’t a comedy is it?), the ECB could well use a few more degrees of freedom in its policy options. While the [...]

The consumer just isn't spending much money in the country's malls. Chain store sales last week ticked up 0.1% but still left the September average down 1.2% from August when they fell 1.8% versus the July peak. During the last ten [...]

Economic slowdown are unpleasant words when combined to describe the backdrop for energy prices. Last week, weakness in the economy helped lower the pump price for a gallon of regular gasoline another eight cents to $3.43. Prices were [...]