Economy in Brief: 2010

It was another humdrum indication of an uninspiring labor market. Initial claims for jobless insurance ticked lower last week to 457,000 from 468,000 the prior week, revised from 464,000. The four-week moving average of initial claims [...]

While money supplies have speeded up a bit over three months compared to six months there is no great monetary stimulus in the offing. In the UK there is a set back. Despite all the concerns about the huge excess bank reserves in the [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that mortgage applications fell 4.4% last week and reversed roughly half of the prior week's gain. Nevertheless, for July overall applications rose 15.0% from June and by nearly one-half from [...]

For June, weakness in durable goods orders was widespread. The advance figures from the Commerce Department indicated a 1.0% decline in orders overall, similar to May's 0.8% drop which was slightly shallower than reported initially. [...]

The GfK group, a market research company headquartered in Nuremberg Germany, released data from its July survey of the German consumer today. Based on the opinions of some 2000 individuals, GfK found a marked improvement in the German [...]

The Conference Board indicated that consumer confidence continued its recent decline this month. Their consumer confidence index fell 7.2% m/m to 50.4 following a 13.4% June decline that was slightly less than reported initially. The [...]

Consumers seem willing to spend even though we've seen a souring in sentiment and confidence. Chain store sales rose 0.6% last week after the prior period's 1.4% jump. Together, these increases pulled sales for the month 1.9% above [...]

The pump price for regular gasoline moved three cents higher last week to $2.75 per gallon. That remained down after an upturn through early-May to $2.90. Pulled higher by firm demand, prices have risen from the late-2009 level of [...]