Economy in Brief: May 2004

Housing starts fell 2.1% last month from the near-record level in March, that was revised slightly higher. April starts of 1.969M compared to the Consensus expectation for 1.98M. Single family starts slipped a modest 0.6% from the [...]

For the first quarter of 2004, Japan reported a current account balance of 50,388 (100 million yen) or about 15,000 (100 million yen) above the first quarter of 2003. At the same time, the financial account showed an increase of [...]

CPI inflation in Spain picked up last month to a 2.7% year/year increase from just 2.1% in February. While 2.7% is not a "high" inflation rate for Spain, the steep upturn from February's pace is an unusual one-month move. As evident [...]

The Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) rose 0.2% in April versus Consensus expectations for a 0.3% gain. Core consumer prices, however, rose 0.3%, slightly more than Consensus expectations for a 0.2% rise. A surprising 0.3% m/m (11.0% y/y) [...]

Retail sales eased 0.5% in April following little-revised jumps of 2.0% and 1.0% during the prior two months. Consensus expectations had been for a 0.1% dip. Retail sales excluding motor vehicles & parts dealers matched Consensus [...]

Besides the US, three other countries reported March trade data today. And like the US, most of these data showed gains in both exports and imports. Similarities end there, however. Canada's trade surplus increased by C$0.3 billion [...]

The U.S. foreign trade deficit deepened to a record $45.96B in March from the unrevised $42.12B deficit of a month earlier. Consensus expectations had been for a deficit of $43.0B. The 1Q04 average deficit of $43.8 also set a new [...]

Earlier this year the weakness in the dollar that had characterized the foreign exchange markets during most of last year reversed itself as growth in the US economy exceeded expectations. More recently, the probability of higher [...]