Economy in Brief: 2010

The FLASH PMIs for EMU from Markit show that the European expansion's death has been greatly exaggerated. In July the MFG PMI advanced to a reading of 56.48 from 56.64 in June. The Services PMI rose to 55.98 in July from 55.51, also [...]

An earlier sign of job market improvement was fleeting. That's the message from the report that initial claims for jobless insurance jumped to 464,000 and more-than-reversed the prior week's decline. The earlier week's figure was [...]

The CASH Index is produced by the RBC Financial Group. It stands for Consumer Attitudes & Spending By Households and the overall series moves much like the University of Michigan's Index of Consumer Sentiment, but its components [...]

Lower interest rates continued to spur mortgage applications last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Overall, mortgage applications jumped another 7.6% last week. That raised applications 15.2% from June and 42.5% [...]

The consumer continues ready to spend. Chain store sales thus rose 1.4% last week and recovered virtually all of the prior week's decline. As a result, July sales so far in the month are 1.6% above June's average after that month's [...]

Off to the races - The German PPI excluding energy continues to show an escalating pace of inflation for each horizon and the patterns shows that acceleration is still the order of the day. Prices are advancing faster over three [...]

The pump price for regular gasoline held steady last week at $2.72 per gallon, about where it's been since late-May. That price is down, however, after an upturn through early-May to $2.90. Pulled higher by firm demand, prices have [...]

Again, with the elimination of the government's program to stimulate housing, the sector's activity fell. June housing starts dropped another 5.0% m/m to 549,000 (AR) after a 14.9% May drop that was deeper than reported initially. The [...]