Economy in Brief

Activity in the factory remains constrained. The ISM Manufacturing Diffusion Index for December fell to 47.2 after easing to 48.1 in November. It was the fifth consecutive reading below 50, indicating a contraction in activity. A [...]

Well, Happy New Year…but realistically it is what it is. Isn't it? The killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, the architect of Iran's military expansion in the Middle East, has created a fire-storm of backlash. But the very [...]

The value of construction put-in-place rose a larger-than-expected 0.6% m/m (+4.1% y/y) in November with significant upward revisions to both October and September. The Action Economics Forecast Survey had looked for a 0.3% m/m rise. [...]

China, the strongest MFG PMI, is also losing momentum the fastest. The Asia PMI average ticked higher in December to 50.5 from a dead neutral 50,0 in November (and 49.5 in October). There is a mild contour of recovery and only those [...]

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Price Index edged up 0.2% m/m (5.0% y/y) in October following an upwardly revised 0.7% m/m gain in September (initially 0.6%). The 5.0% y/y increase in October marked a sharp slowdown from the [...]

In the week ended December 23, retail gasoline prices edged down to $2.53 per gallon (+9.1% y/y)... These data are reported by the U.S. Department of Energy. The price data can be found in Haver's WEEKLY and DAILY databases. Greater [...]

All the indicators for China's manufacturing sector remain listless in December. For those of you driven by literalism, China's manufacturing sector has ‘grown' in each of the past two months as its manufacturing PMI stands above 50 [...]

The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index for November eased 0.5% (-8.0% y/y)........... The Consumer Confidence data are available in Haver's CBDB database. The total indexes appear in USECON, and the market expectations are [...]