Economy in Brief: July 2014

The overall U.S. unemployment rate fell sharply last month to 6.1%, a six-year low, from 10.0% at its late-2009 peak. There continues to be great variation amongst individual states, but a declining trend is evident most everywhere. [...]

No man is an island; nor is any country (except in some cases literally). And even though the U.S. is geographically separated from most of its trading partners by large distances, it is influenced by events in their economies. But no [...]

The Index of Leading Economic Indicators, from the Conference Board, improved 0.3% during June (6.3% y/y), the fifth straight month of firm increase. The June gain fell short of expectations for a 0.5% increase in the Action Economics [...]

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank reported that its General Business Conditions Index for July jumped to 23.9 from 17.8 in June. The figure was the highest since March 2011 and it beat consensus expectations for a decline to 16.0, [...]

Initial unemployment insurance claims declined unexpectedly to 302,000 in the week ended July 12 from a revised 305,000 in the prior week, earlier reported as 304,000. The latest claims level was the lowest since early-May and [...]

Car registrations in Europe fell by 4.2% in June after a 1.4% decline in May. Over three months registrations are falling at a 4.2% annual rate, over six months they are falling at an 8.8% annual rate and over 12 months they are [...]

New building activity turned in a very lopsided performance last month. Housing starts during June fell 9.3% to 893,000 AR (+7.5% y/y) following a 7.3% May decline to 985,000, revised from 1.001 million. The latest figure was well [...]

Euro area exports rose in May by 0.6% as imports lagged slightly, rising by only 0.5%. As a result, the trade balance in the euro area saw a slightly larger surplus in May at ?15.29 billion. Exports are not strong across the board. [...]