Economy in Brief: January 2006

Last week Carol Stone commented on the signs of weakness in the United Kingdom's economy. Lower employment, reduced confidence, declining orders and industrial production. Today the Confederation of British Industries cast further [...]

Chain store sales edged 0.3% higher last week following the sharp 1.4% drop during the prior period, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)-UBS survey. The increase left sales in January 1.3% ahead of [...]

Chain store sales edged 0.3% higher last week following the sharp 1.4% drop during the prior period, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)-UBS survey. The increase left sales in January 1.3% ahead of [...]

Crude oil prices strengthened last week on market worry that supplies from Iran could be disrupted. Iran produces roughly 4 million barrels of crude oil per day, a bit more than 15% of the OPEC's total and about 6% of the world's [...]

The Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators from the Conference Board rose 0.1% last month following an upwardly revised 0.9% November increase. Consensus expectations had been for a 0.2% gain. The breadth of one month gain [...]

The Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators from the Conference Board rose 0.1% last month following an upwardly revised 0.9% November increase. Consensus expectations had been for a 0.2% gain. The breadth of one month gain [...]

Consumers in several countries are maintaining a rather firm spending pace, judged by new data on Total and purchases of goods. In fact, in Holland, the last few months have seen a smart rebound from a weak performance in 2003 and [...]

Worry that some potential bursting of the "bubble" in housing market valuations at least in part rests on the idea that homeowners are borrowing against those "inflated" values to support current spending. In fact, real spending [...]