Economy in Brief: 2020

• Monthly increases spread across product lines. The Autodata Corporation reported that sales of light vehicles rose 7.5% during September (-4.7% y/y) to 16.36 million units (SAAR) from 15.22 million in August. September sales were [...]

Japan's unemployment rate has risen for the second month in a row. The EMU unemployment rate has risen for five months in a row. The spread of infection has played a role in this. Japan had its peak for infections early in August and [...]

September's ADP employment report showed a gain of 749,000, following gains of 481,000 in August and 216,000 in July. While the focus of this month's report is on the large September's gain, the bigger issue is why ADP did not revise [...]

• Factory sector activity backpedals modestly. • Components are mixed. • Price index continues to increase. The recent improvement in factory sector activity moderated last month. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) reported [...]

There are always several different views of the reality of economic analysis and forecasts. Each observer has a different, or parallax, view reflecting different interests, expectations or methods of analysis. Still, there are certain [...]

• Seasonally adjusted initial claims in state programs fell 36,000 in September 26 week to 837,000; not seasonally adjusted claims fell 40,300 to 786,900. • PUA program initial claims rose 34,521 to 650,120. • Insured unemployment [...]

• Income decline due to lower unemployment insurance payments. • Spending continues to strengthen. • Price inflation eases. Personal income declined 2.7% during August (+4.7% y/y) following a 0.5% July rise, revised from 0.4%. A 2.1% [...]

• Construction spending increased 1.4% in August with June and July now showing healthy gains. • Residential jumps 3.7%; continued weakness in nonresidential. • The 2.0% decline in construction since February looks similar to previous [...]