Economy in Brief: 2010

Factory sector activity expanded moderately last month, though its rate of growth actually slipped from August. The September Composite Index from the Institute for Supply Management fell to 54.4 from 56.3 pulling the index to its [...]

German retail sales ticked up ex-autos in August after two moths of sliding. Real ex-auto retail sales fell in August for the second month in a row. By category nominal retail sales are up for food and clothing and footwear over [...]

Personal income firmed during August and posted a 0.5% gain following an unrevised 0.2% July increase. The increase beat Consensus expectations for a 0.3% gain.However, rather than reflecting some broad-based improvement in earnings, [...]

The headline rate of inflation that the ECB puts a ceiling on rose by 0.2% in Sept after rising by 0.4% in August. The three-month pace of inflation is an excessive 2.4% with the Yr/Yr pace at 1.8%, still below the ECB's self-imposed [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell 16,000 last week to 453,000 from an upwardly revised 469,000 in the week prior (originally 465,000).The 4-week moving average fell slightly to 463,250. The latest weekly decline was [...]

The latest estimate of 1.7% (AR) growth in real Q2 GDP was little revised from last month's 1.6%. Moreover, it differed little from the Consensus expectation for an unchanged reading of 1.6%. It remained the fourth straight quarter of [...]

The EMU overall sentiment index rose in September to 103.4 from 103.1 keeping the European advance in play. Of the main five countries four saw increases in their confidence levels, Italy was the exception, but Spain's index rose [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that mortgage applications slipped 0.8% last week for the fourth consecutive down week. Nevertheless, overall applications remain up 20.7% September '09. Last week's total decline was led by [...]