Economy in Brief: 2021

• NFIB Small Business Optimism falls to lowest level since May. • Worries surge about economic growth & sales. • Pricing power falls slightly. The National Federation of Independent Business' (NFIB) reported that its Small Business [...]

• Gasoline prices rise to highest since early March 2020. • Crude oil prices increase to highest since late February 2020. • Natural gas prices jump up to eight-week high. The price of regular gasoline rose to $2.32 per gallon (-9.8% [...]

Spain continues to reel under the effects of the coronavirus. Of the various total and sector data in the table, only intermediate goods output is back at its level of February 2020, just before the virus slammed into Europe. Among [...]

• Production gains lift prices. • Commodity price strength remains broad-based. Strength in industrial output is continuing. Industrial production rose during each of the seven months ended November, up 20.5% during that period. At [...]

• Nonrevolving usage picks up. • Credit card balances continue to fall. Consumer credit outstanding increased $15.3 billion during November (0.3% y/y) following a $4.5 billion October rise, revised from $7.2 billion. A $9.0 billion [...]

• Coronavirus restrictions, business shutdowns & severe weather cause decline. • Earnings growth accelerates. • Jobless rate holds steady at lowest level since March. The recovery in the labor market came to an abrupt end in December. [...]

German manufacturing has all the trappings of being on the mend. Output rose by a solid 0.9% in November and is still riding a string of increases. Although output is up at a 29.5% annual rate over three months and at a 40.9% pace [...]

• Inventories unchanged while sales rose 0.2% in November. • Wholesale inventory-to-sales ratio unchanged at 1.31. Wholesale inventories were unchanged in November (-2.1% y/y) after solid gains of 1.3% m/m in October and 0.9% m/m in [...]