Economy in Brief: 2003

Nonfarm payrolls fell by the most for any month since November 2001. Consensus expectations were for a 10,000 worker rise. The rise in January payrolls was revised up moderately. February payrolls may have been depressed by the [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance unexpectedly rose last week, up 2.9% from the prior week's level which was little revised. It was the third consecutive week of significant increase. Claims for all of February were 5.6% [...]

Unit sales of light vehicles fell sharply in February for the second month. The 4.7% m/m decline followed a steep 11.5% drop the prior month. February sales were slightly below Consensus expectations for a 15.9 mil. unit sales rate. [...]

Retail sales in Germany, as reported by the Bundesbank, rose 2.2% in January from December, the highest month-to-month rise since February, 2000. All the major categories of retail spending rose except motor vehicles and parts, which [...]

Chain store sales rose only 0.2% in the week following the President's Day snowstorm when sales dropped 0.8%, according to the BTM-UBSW survey. For the full month, sales in February fell 0.2% (-1.0% y/y) from the January average. [...]

Personal income rose slightly less in January than Consensus expectations for a 0.4% gain. The 0.3% rise was the sixth consecutive monthly increase at that rate. During the last two months, stability in income growth has been fostered [...]

Real GDP growth last quarter was revised up unexpectedly. Consensus expectations were for a revision to 1.0% growth. The surprise was that domestic demand growth was stronger than initially estimated. Growth in final sales to domestic [...]

Durable goods orders rose much more than expected last month. The gain followed a slight December decline that was revised from a slight gain. Consensus expectations had been for a 1.0% rise. The rise in durable orders caught up with [...]