Economy in Brief: May 2011

The INSEE survey shows that the French household is not feeling very good about the economy. While the confidence metric did tick up it stands only in the bottom 7 percent of its range back to 1990. Over the past 12-months living [...]

In its second look at the economy last quarter, the Commerce Department didn't find much that was materially different versus last month's picture.Real GDP grew 1.8% (SAAR), still the weakest growth since Q2'10. The Q1 figure fell [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that overall mortgage applications increased another 1.1% last week following several months of strong gain. Applications to refinance a mortgage ticked up 0.9% w/w to the highest level since [...]

The GfK index of consumer climate for Germany has peaked and is headed lower, but at a snail’s pace. The climate reading peaked in March at 6.0 and in June it has receded to 5.5. The early reading index for June is without any details [...]

The transportation sector caused huge volatility in durable manufacturing last month. New orders for durable goods fell 3.6% and reversed virtually all of the 4.4% March gain. Past figures were revised as part of the benchmark changes [...]

The retailing portion of the CBI distributive trades index weakened slightly in May as the Yr/Yr sales index fell to +18 from +21. At that mark the index stands in the 65th percentile of its high/low range. What is most disturbing in [...]

Recently, we've noted that investors and purchasing managers in Germany have begun to lower their expectations for the growth of the economy over the next six months. It appears that it is not so much that they expect a sharp fall in [...]

The consumer may have grown tired of spending this month. After strong sales gains in March & April, chain store sales fell 1.0% last week after a 2.0% drop during the week prior. The declines pulled the month-to-date average 1.8% [...]