Economy in Brief: June 2011

While headline Zone inflation hits 0% in May and the core edged up by just 0.1% the trends continue to point higher. What is really going on with inflation will play out over the coming months. Since commodity prices have broken their [...]

Like yesterday's Empire State Index, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank's index of regional factory sector activity turned negative for June. It dropped to -7.7 from an unrevised 3.9 in May. It was the first negative reading since [...]

They fell, but not by much. Initial claims for jobless insurance declined 3.7% during the June 11th week to 414,000 from 430,000 during the week prior, initially reported as 427,000. The latest decline was to the same level as four [...]

New activity in the housing sector continued to languish last month. Housing starts rose just 3.5% during May to 560,000 (AR) following an 8.8% April decline, initially reported as -10.6% . The latest figure remained near the lowest [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that its Empire State Factory Index of General Business Conditions fell to -7.79. The figure was the first negative reading since November of last year. The number ran counter to Consensus [...]

The National Association of Home Builders reported that its June index of housing market activity fell to 13 versus an unrevised 16 in May. Though the latest figure remained above the all-time low of 8 reached in January of 2009, it [...]

The chart of the three main EMU sectors tells the basic story of the Zone. Capital goods output is relatively steady at growth rates between 6% and 10%. Intermediate goods output has slowed but has done so erratically. Meanwhile, [...]

U.S. industrial production ticked up 0.1% last month after an unrevised no-change during April. The latest figure was weaker than Consensus expectations for a 0.2% gain according to Action Economics. However, weather played a big [...]