Economy in Brief: 2012

Machinery orders in Japan (Private orders excluding volatile items--ships and electric power) released today fell 14.8% in May. This is the largest month to month decline since October, 2001, raising the prospect of a slowdown in the [...]

German output and orders have shown unexpected life in May. While the problems in EMU continue to swirl around it and Germany seems to be caught in the outermost grip of the spiral we have this month had at least two reports that defy [...]

The job market remained under pressure last month. Nonfarm payrolls grew just 80,000 following gains of 77,000 and 68,000 during the prior two months, revised from 69,000 and 77,000, respectively. A 90,000 increase was expected for [...]

The outplacement firm of Challenger, Grey & Christmas reported that 37,551 job cuts were announced this month, the fewest of the economic recovery. Job cut announcements fell in the aerospace/defense, automotive, computer, consumer [...]

The service sector continues to lose its footing.

Labor market improved further. Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 374,000 last week from 388,000, revised from 386,000. Consensus expectations were for 385,000 new claims. The four-week moving average of claims slipped [...]

Unit sales of light motor vehicles during June rose 2.2% to 14.08M (SAAR). The increase made up half of May's decline according to Autodata Corporation. The latest was slightly higher than the Consensus estimate for 13.9M sales, [...]

Job growth rose last month but not by much. Private sector payrolls rose 176,000 in June as reported by the payroll processor Automatic Data Processing (ADP) and economic consultants Macroeconomic Advisers. A 100,000 gain had been [...]