Economy in Brief

The GfK survey for Germany projects confidence for the month ahead. The new projection is for July. After several months with the confidence reading stuck in single-digit negative numbers, the index for July moved up to -0.3. It’s a [...]

• Goods spending continues to weaken; services strengthen. • Increase in core prices hits twenty-year high. • Total take-home earnings again fall sharply. Personal consumption expenditures held steady during May (18.9% y/y) following [...]

All sector climate in the IFO framework rose to a net reading of 22.7 in June from 18.3 in May. The current business situation improved to 27.1 from 18.2, while expectations moved up to 18.0 from 15.6. Climate and current conditions [...]

• Growth stays just below its record. • Component movement is mixed m/m. • Expectations for six months ahead improve. The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City reported that its manufacturing sector business activity index edged up to [...]

• Consumer spending, business & residential investment are strengthened. • Foreign trade subtraction is increased. • Corporate profit improvement is raised. Real GDP surged 6.4% (SAAR) during Q1'21 (0.4% y/y), unrevised from last [...]

• Exports fell while imports rose. • Still, foreign trade on course to contribute to overall GDP growth in Q2. The advance estimate of the U.S. trade deficit in goods widened to $88.1 billion in May from $85.7 billion in April. The [...]

• Transportation orders surge, while ex-transportation improves further. • Core capital goods orders ease following earlier strength. • Shipments rise along with order backlogs & inventories. The factory sector remains on a firm [...]

• Modest decline from upwardly revised previous week. • Continuing state claims fell to new pandemic low. • PUA claims rose for second consecutive week. Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell 7,000 in the week ended June 19 to [...]