Economy in Brief: 2011

This summer has started out with indications of economic weakness relative to the lethargic Q2. The July Composite Index for the service and construction sectors from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) fell to 52.7 from an [...]

The outplacement firm of Challenger, Grey & Christmas reported that job cut announcements during July surged. The nearly two-thirds m/m gain to 66,414 brought them to the highest level since March of last year. The uptick in [...]

Services, while generally viewed as nontradables, are showing a remarkably consistent drop across the largest most developed economies. That is interesting since these sectors are not linked by trade by are captives of their [...]

Their estimate missed the mark for June, but again, in its latest National Employment Report, the payroll processor Automatic Data Processing (ADP) and economic consultants Macroeconomic Advisers, indicated that job growth has firmed. [...]

The pump price for regular gasoline rose a penny last week to $3.71 per gallon, its highest in a month. Nevertheless, prices remained down twenty-five cents since the May peak. Pump prices usually rise this time of year with increased [...]

Unit sales of light vehicles during July recovered some of the prior two months' weakness with a 5.8% increase to 12.23M units (SAAR). Sales had fallen 1.4% and 11.0% m/m during June and May, respectively. Figures were revised [...]

The Riksbank Macro Indicators that the Bank uses in its conduct of monetary policy have been added to NORDIC, as noted in the July Haver Analytic News. The Riksbank attempts to stabilize inflation around targeted rate and production [...]

The PPI for the Euro-Area fell by 0.3%, the second straight drop in a row. The PPI has been steadily decelerating, as energy prices has abated their rise. Both headline and core inflation rates across key Euro-Area member countries [...]