Economy in Brief: February 2016

The U.S. Treasury Department reported a $55.2 billion budget surplus during January versus a $17.5 billion deficit twelve months earlier. Calendar quirks contributed to the improvement. A $16.0 billion surplus had been expected in the [...]

The National Association of Realtors reported that the Composite Index of Home Affordability declined 3.4% during December (-5.4% y/y). For all of 2015, affordability eased 1.1% following a 6.3% drop in 2014. During the last ten [...]

December is showing weak industrial output in the euro area. We feature Italy and France and some of their IP details in the table above. But of 10 early reporting EMU members, half of them have output falling and one has output flat [...]

Inventories at the wholesale level ticked 0.1% lower (+1.8% y/y) during December following a 0.4% November decline, revised from -0.3%. The decline reflected a broad-based 0.3% fall (+0.5% y/y) in durable goods inventories. Lumber & [...]

Gasoline prices continued to decline last week and remained at the lowest level since January 2009. The pump price for a gallon of regular gasoline fell to an average $1.76 (-19.7% y/y), down from $1.82 in the prior week, according to [...]

The job market improved greatly last year. The job openings rate increased to 3.8% for the full-year, a record high for the series which dates back to 2000. It improved to 3.8% during December, also a record high, up from 3.4% in [...]

German trade flows continue to show deterioration sequentially as growth rates are fading but year-over-year exports and imports still post gains as the year-over-year German surplus has expanded. German exports show a sequential [...]

The National Federation of Independent Business reported that its Small Business Optimism Index declined 1.4% during January to 93.9 following a 0.7% December rise. The index was 6.4% below its peak of 100.4 in December 2014. [...]