Economy in Brief: 2017

Regular gasoline prices held at $2.41 per gallon last week (1.4% y/y), and were lower than the 2014 high of $3.71 per gallon. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal variation in gasoline pump prices. The [...]

It is odd how sales can be so weak and yet appear to be so firm. It a trick that retail sales in the EMU area seems to have been able to perform. Real sales are up by just 2.4% over 12 months and just 2.2% for nonfoods. Yet, three- [...]

Manufacturing sector orders eased 0.2% (+2.9% y/y) following a 1.0% gain, revised from 0.2%. Earlier figures were revised. Durable goods orders declined 0.8% (-0.1% y/y), revised from the advance report of a 0.7% fall. Transportation [...]

The National Association for Business Economics expects 2.4% real U.S. economic growth in 2018, revised slightly from the earlier expectation of 2.5% growth. These follow expected growth of 2.2% this year, revised from 2.3%. Quarterly [...]

All the composite PMI gauges in the table show growth in May. This is the second month in a row for which this is true. In March Hong Kong showed contraction; in February, Brazil and Hong Kong showed contraction. Still, out of the 14 [...]

The Composite Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Activity from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) fell to 56.9 during May, and reversed all of its April increase. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected a reading of 56.0. [...]

Nonfarm output per hour remained unchanged during Q1'17 (1.2% y/y) revised from the preliminary report of a 0.6% decline. A 0.1% dip had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Output grew an upwardly revised 1.7% (2.5% [...]

The May employment report sent mixed signals about labor market conditions. Nonfarm payrolls rose 138,000 (1.5% y/y) last month. A 182,000 increase had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The rise followed a 174,000 [...]