Economy in Brief: 2011

The U.S. producer price index for finished goods increased just 0.2% last month, the weakest rise since July. The gain roughly matched Consensus expectations for a 0.1% uptick. Offsetting each other were a 1.5% rise in energy prices [...]

Total retail & food service sales slipped 0.2% last month after a 0.3% April increase and a 0.8% March gain, both revised down slightly from 0.5% and 0.9%, respectively. The May decline roughly matched Consensus expectations for a [...]

The National Federation of Independent Business indicated that its index of small business optimism fell to 90.0 from an unrevised 91.2 in April. The latest remained the lowest level since September. Deterioration amongst the sub- [...]

The Economic and Social Research Institute of Japan released, today, data on machinery orders for April. Although total orders were up 3.1% from March, the HEADLINE series--Private Sector Orders excluding Volatile Orders (ships and [...]

The U.S. Government's budget deficit so far this fiscal year totaled $927.4B, according to figures released late-Friday by the U.S. Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget. The monthly deficit in May deepened slightly m/m to [...]

Pricing strength receded, at least temporarily, amongst internationally traded goods last month. Overall U.S. import prices rose just 0.2% after a little-revised 2.1% April increase. Nevertheless, the gain was stronger than Consensus [...]

The table in this commentary contains data for some of the early inflation reporters in the Euro Area, as does the graph. The graph is showing that the rising inflation trend is abating across all of the troubled borrowers in the [...]

The foreign trade deficit narrowed in April to $43.7B from $46.8B in March, initially reported as $48.2B. Expectations had been for $48.8B according to Action Economics. The latest figure was the least since December as exports rose [...]