Economy in Brief: 2016

Make no mistake about it. Italy's drop in consumer confidence is not about Brexit; it's about Italy. Italian confidence had surged, peaking in January of this year and has since been in a steady state of erosion. Confidence is 18 [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas reported that its general activity index of factory sector activity remained negative during June. The index of general business conditions at -18.3 compared to -20.8 in May. The figure has been [...]

Brexit came as a shock and now we must monitor all relevant trends to see what will be affected in the post-Brexit period. We also get a look at how trends were performing as we were gliding into the pre-Brexit vote period. The answer [...]

The IFO joins the ZEW index with a rise in June. But these increases came in the wake of the `polls' that were saying that Brexit would be defeated. In the event, Brexit was not defeated and the U.K. is on its way out of the EU. Much [...]

New orders for durable goods declined 2.2% during May (+3.2% y/y) following a 3.3% April increase, revised from 3.4%. A 0.8% decline had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Weakness in the transportation sector led [...]

The National Activity Index from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago declined to -0.51 during May, following one month in positive territory. It suggested below-trend overall economic growth. The three month moving average reinforced [...]

Initial unemployment insurance claims declined to 259,000 (-5.3% y/y) during the week ended June 18 versus an unrevised 277,000 claims in the prior week. The decline was to the lowest level since the end of April. The Action Economics [...]

The Conference Board's Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators fell 0.2% during May (+1.2% y/y), following an unrevised 0.6% April increase. The decline was the first since January, and disappointed expectations for a 0.2% rise [...]