Economy in Brief: 2016

Weakness on the doorstep and Brexit looms German IP dropped 1.3% in May, marking its third drop in four months as well as its fifth drop in seven months. The IP drops in May and March are large, each in excess of 1%, while the April [...]

The ADP/Moody's National Employment Report indicated that nonfarm private sector payrolls rose 172,000 during June following a 168,000 May increase, revised from 173,000. During all of last quarter, payrolls rose an average 163,000 [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Market Volume Index jumped 14.2% last week (51.4% y/y) to the highest level since June 2013. Purchase applications increased 4.3% (10.5% y/y) while refinancing [...]

Regular gasoline prices fell to $2.29 per gallon last week (-18.0% y/y), down from $2.40 early last month, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Nevertheless, prices remained near the highest level since early September. Prices [...]

The Composite Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Business Activity from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) strengthened to 56.5 during June versus an unrevised 52.9 in May. It was the highest level since November. Consensus [...]

German orders (all data in real terms) came up flat in May after a 1.9% decline in April. Despite the poor two-month run of orders, orders are still advancing at a 2.9% annual rate over three months and the real orders series actually [...]

The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services widened to $41.1 billion in May from an unrevised $37.4 billion in April. The Action Economics Forecast Survey had expected a $40.0 billion deficit. The latest figure was the deepest in [...]

Retail sales volumes in the euro area in May grew by a solid 0.4% but in the wake of a 0.2% gain in April and after a 0.6% drop in March. Over the last three months, retail sales are still contracting on balance in the EMU. The [...]