Economy in Brief: 2016

German IP rebounded to gain 2.5% month-to-month in August after a 1.5% drop in July. With this rebound, German GDP is up at an 8.8% annual rate over three months. However, it is only up at a 0.5% pace two months into the third [...]

German orders rose by 1% in August, their second monthly gain in a row. It was the first back-to-back monthly gain since November. However neither domestic nor foreign orders have posted monthly gains back-to-back since March for [...]

The outplacement firm of Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that job cut announcements during September rose to 44,324 (-24.7% y/y) and made up most of the August decline to 32,188. Layoffs rose in the aerospace/defense, chemical, [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance declined to 249,000 (-6.7% y/y) during the week ended October 1 from an unrevised 254,000 in the prior week. The four-week moving average of claims fell to 253,500, the lowest level since [...]

Manufacturing sector orders improved 0.2% (-1.6% y/y) during August following a 1.4% increase, revised from 1.9%. The rise reflected a 0.1% improvement (-1.1% y/y) in orders for durable goods, which was unrevised from the advance [...]

German service sector weakness clobbers the EMU readings The long slow erosion, depicted in the chart of the EMU region's services PMI, stepped up in September as the EMU service sector index slipped by 0.6 points on the month, its [...]

The Composite Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Business Activity from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) improved to 57.1 in September from an unrevised 51.4 in August. It was the highest level since October 2015. Expectations [...]

The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services increased to $40.7 billion during August from an unrevised $39.5 billion in July. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected a $40.0 billion deficit. Overall exports increased 0.8% (0.7% [...]