Economy in Brief: February 2012

The DIHK survey has tied its all-time high measure in 2012 Q1. The German Chambers of Commerce, or DIHK, said its quarterly survey of 28,000 companies shows that the economy is on solid ground. Its headline makes a strong declaration [...]

The University of Michigan's Index of Consumer Sentiment for mid-February eased to 72.5. While the decline reversed half of January's increase, the latest was very-much improved versus six months ago. Consensus expectations were for [...]

An improving U.S. economy is taking in more imports. That's the indication behind a deeper U.S. foreign trade deficit during December, deeper for the second month in a row. The deficit rose to $48.8B from a revised $47.1B in November, [...]

Inventories at the wholesale level jumped 1.0% (10.0% y/y) during December following no change in November. For all of last year inventories rose 10.0% following an 11.1% gain during 2010. Higher inventories of apparel (17.5% y/y), [...]

The chart puts a good perspective on the turn up in UK yearend IP...nothing special. The rise in December is sharp and does pull IP out of a deepening nose dive of Yr/Yr growth rates headed below zero. But as we often like to remind [...]

Signs of labor market improvement continue to be evident. Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 358,000 last week. The decline was from 373,000 during the week prior (revised from 367,000) and compared to Consensus [...]

German exports and imports are locked in clear withering trends. The trends in the table all show a loss in momentum and a number of trends show negative growth has emerged not just slower positive growth. Germany is a very trade- [...]

The index of total mortgage applications rose 7.5% last week to 810.0 (March 16, 1990 = 100), nearly the highest since late 2010. The rise followed two weeks of moderate decline. Continuing to take advantage of low interest rates, [...]