Economy in Brief: November 2019

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago reported that its National Activity Index fell to -0.71 during October from an unrevised -0.45 in September. It was the lowest level in six months. The three-month moving average smoothes out [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City reported that its index of regional manufacturing business activity remained below zero for the fifth consecutive month. During November, the index held steady at -3. The negative figures [...]

Let's begin looking at conditions in Europe. The graph tells the over-arching story of a weakening manufacturing sector whose weakness has largely been resisted by the services sector. Sure, both services and manufacturing are in [...]

Minimal pricing power in the factory sector continues. The Industrial Materials Price Index from the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research (FIBER) increased 0.5% during the last four weeks and 0.6% over the last [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance remained at 227,000 (1.3% year-on-year) during the week ending November 16, while the previous week was revised slightly higher (was 225,000). The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected [...]

The French business climate indicator for industry ticked higher to 99.7 in November from 99.4 in October, a marginal improvement. Since 2001, the indicator ranks just above the lower one third of its queue of observations at its 34.7 [...]

The Conference Board's Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators eased 0.1% (+0.3% y/y) during October. That came after September's 0.2% drop, revised from -0.1%, and a 0.2% August shortfall. The latest decline matched [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that sales of existing homes rose 1.9% (+4.6% y/y) during October to 5.460 million from 5.36 million in September, revised from 5.380 million. The Action Economics Forecast Survey [...]