Economy in Brief: May 2019

Last week's report that factory sector output fell again in April helps shed light on the recent weakness in industrial commodity prices. The Industrial Materials Price Index from the Foundation for International Business and Economic [...]

Japan's real GDP was expected to shrink in Q1 2019 but managed to post a solid expansion instead. A progression of slowing GDP growth rates saw GDP kick back up in Q1 2019, logging a gain at a 2.1% annualized rate in the quarter and a [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago reported that its National Activity index fell to -0.45 during April, after rising to 0.05 in March. Remaining negative was the three-month moving average, declining to -0.32, its lowest point since [...]

Last week's report that factory sector output fell again in April helps shed light on the recent weakness in industrial commodity prices. The Industrial Materials Price Index from the Foundation for International Business and Economic [...]

Every picture tells a story was we well know. And it is said that a picture can be worth a thousand words (sometimes more). In that vein (although I will not stop writing), the chart speaks very loudly and carries some unusual [...]

The Conference Board's Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators increased 0.2% (2.7% y/y) during April following a 0.3% March gain, revised from 0.4%. The rise matched expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The [...]

The European Monetary Area logged a smaller trade surplus in March as it fell to 17.9 billion euros from 20.6 billion euros in February. One year ago, the surplus stood at 20.6 billion euros. Exports slowed to a 0.9% gain month-to- [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance declined 2,000 to 228,000 (+8.1% year-on-year) during the week ended May 4 Continuing claims for unemployment insurance rose 13,000 to 1.684 million (-5.8% y/y) in the week ending April 27 [...]