Economy in Brief: 2021

Last week the Biden administration announced that it is contemplating a further major package of fiscal policy measures for the US economy. While the size of the package that is being touted caught the imagination of many observers it [...]

• Exports & improve moderately. • Oil prices lift petroleum imports. The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services widened to $74.4 billion during March from February's $70.5 billion, revised from $71.1 billion. The deficit was a [...]

• Car & light truck sales have risen sharply so far this year. • Imports' share of market moves higher. U.S. sales of light vehicles increased last month as COVID-19 vaccines became more readily available. The Autodata Corporation [...]

The Markit PMIs rose on a broad basis this month. Although they had risen more broadly in the past, this month’s rise is impressive. What this month brings that is most compelling is a paucity of anything but episodic weakness (only [...]

• Activity improved after severe winter weather limited building activity in February. • Private nonresidential & public sector building drop. • Residential building activity is strong. The value of construction put-in-place improved [...]

• Factory activity weakens to lowest level in three months. • Component declines are broad-based. • Pricing power continues to improve. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) reported that its Composite Index of Manufacturing [...]

Despite some better performance on indicators such as the recent (and slightly timelier) EU Commission indexes, GDP across the euro area remains challenged, falling in Q1 2021. Because the EU Commission was not able to secure enough [...]

• Barometer jumped to highest level since December 1983. • New orders & orders backlogs surge. • Pricing power improves significantly. The ISM-Chicago Purchasing Managers Business Barometer strengthened to 72.1 in April from 66.3 in [...]