Economy in Brief: 2012

The pump price of regular gasoline fell three cents last week to $3.80 per gallon. Less driving again helped pump prices move lower. Haver Analytics constructs seasonal factors to reflect this pressure. After adjustment the price for [...]

The overall September Purchasing Managers Survey for manufacturing improved slightly from 48.07 in August to 48.96 in September. (Values above 50 represent expansion while values under 50 represent contraction.) Most countries [...]

The value of construction put-in-place fell 0.6% during August after a 0.4% July decline, last month reported as -0.9%. A 0.5% rise had been expected. Private sector spending led the decline with a 0.5% drop (+12.1% y/y) after a 0.3% [...]

Activity in the manufacturing sector improved last month. The ISM Composite Index of industrial sector activity rose to 51.5 during September, the first month above the break-even level of 50 since May. Nevertheless, the improvement [...]

The University of Michigan's Index of Consumer Sentiment for September rose to 78.3 from an unrevised 74.3 in August. The figure was down, however, from the mid-September reading of 79.2. The latest number was slightly short of [...]

Adjusted for price inflation, disposable personal income fell 0.3% during August. On a y/y basis, growth held up at 1.8% but three-month growth was slightly negative for the first time since November. The monthly decline reflected a [...]

Durable goods orders fell by an outsized 13.2% (-6.7% y/y) last month following a lessened 3.3% advance during July. A 4.5% decline had been the Consensus forecast. Fewer orders for transportation equipment led the decline with a [...]

Last quarter's real GDP growth was unexpectedly revised lower to a 1.3% annual rate following the second estimate of 1.7% growth. Growth was expected to be little-changed. The revision reflected a 0.2 percentage point subtraction from [...]