Economy in Brief: 2017

Inventories at the wholesale level during July increased 0.6% for the third consecutive month. June's increase was revised from 0.7%. Inventories rose a moderate 3.2% y/y. During the last three months, however, inventories rose at an [...]

As Hurricane Harvey shut down business activity in Houston and along the Gulf Coast, initial applications for unemployment insurance jumped to 298,000 (14.9% y/y) during the week ended September 2 from an unrevised 236,000 the prior [...]

Germany's industrial production was flat in July after a 1.1% decline in June. These results followed a series of five months during which German output expanded strongly at a 12% annual rate. With the slowing in the past several [...]

Output per hour in the nonfarm business sector grew at a 1.5% annual rate (1.3% y/y) in the second quarter, revised from 0.9% estimated last month. A 1.2% rise had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Output rose [...]

Hurricane Harvey has had a pronounced effect on gasoline prices. Regular gasoline prices at the pump jumped 28 cents in the week ended September 4 to $2.68 per gallon (20.5% y/y), the highest level since August 2015. Haver Analytics [...]

The Composite Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Activity from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) rose to 55.3 during August from 53.9 in July. It remained near the lowest index level since August of last year. The Action [...]

The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services of $43.7 billion during July changed little from $43.5 billion during June, revised from $43.6 billion. A $44.6 billion deficit had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. [...]

Germany's orders fell 0.7% m/m in July after a strong gain in each of the previous two months. The decline in orders was not anticipated because by all accounts German manufacturing has been doing pretty well. The PMI gauge, the ZEW [...]