Economy in Brief

• Midwest economic activity increases. • New orders and production lead gains this month. • Expectations rise as well. The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City reported that its manufacturing business activity index increased to 1 [...]

• Trade deficit widened to $74.3 billion. • A 5.8% drop in exports more than offsets the 1.2% decline in imports. • Imports of industrial supplies and of consumer goods ex autos rose in May. The advance U.S. trade report showed the [...]

• GDP shortfall continues to reflect widespread component decline. • Profits decline remains greatest since 2008. • All sectors decline, except housing. • Price inflation remains moderate. U.S. GDP declined an unrevised 5.0% (SAAR) [...]

• Durable goods orders rebounded in May, rising a more-than-expected 15.8% m/m, the largest monthly increase since July 2014. • This was led by transportation orders, which jumped up a record 80.7% m/m but recouped only about a third [...]

European financial markets welcomed the news earlier this week that June's flash purchasing managers indices for the Eurozone and the UK had recovered much of the ground that they lost in April and May. The headline composite index [...]

• State initial jobless claims decreased to a still extremely-elevated 1.480 million in the week ending June 20. • Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance new filers at 728,120. • Continuing claims for state programs declined to 19.5 [...]

• Prices declined or were unchanged in several areas. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Price Index improved 0.2% during April following a 0.1% uptick in March. The y/y gain eased slightly to 5.5%. Over the past three months, [...]

The graphics tell the story clearly enough. French industry and services indexes plunged and have since seen a substantial rebound. But even a substantial rebound leaves the levels of the indexes shy of where they had been – and by a [...]