Economy in Brief: May 2018

Initial claims for unemployment insurance edged slightly higher last week to 222,000 (-6.7% y/y) in the week ended May 12 versus an unrevised 211,000 in the prior week. Claims were expected to rise to 215,000 in the Action Economics [...]

EMU core and headline inflation rates continue to grow at rates that are at a significant discount to their objective (which is just a bit below 2%). Headline inflation grew by 0.3% in April, but the core only rose by 0.1%. Still, [...]

The Federal Reserve reported that industrial production increased 0.7% (3.5% y/y) during April following a 0.7% March rise, revised from 0.5%. A 0.5% rise had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Factory sector [...]

Total housing starts in April fell 3.7% (+10.5% y/y) to 1.287 million (SAAR) from 1.336 million during March, revised from 1.319 million. A level of 1.318 million starts had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. [...]

The Empire State Manufacturing Index of General Business Conditions rose to 20.1 during May and made up most of its April decline. Expectations had been for 15.0 in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. These data, reported by the [...]

Inventories, whose growth had outpaced sales in previous months, were back to zero growth in March. Meanwhile, the pace of sales overall held at a 0.5% gain in March, the same pace as in February. Over three months we see that the [...]

The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders-Wells Fargo increased 2.9% (1.4% y/y) to 70 during May following an April decline to 68. The latest reading compared to expectations for 69 in the [...]

EMU growth finalizes on a weak note with quarterly growth up at a 1.6% annual rate and year-on-year growth up by 2.5%. That 2.5% mark is still good enough to rank year-on-year EMU growth in the top 18% of all growth rates posted since [...]