Economy in Brief: February 2019

50 shades of weakness EMU industrial production (excluding construction, the headline series) fell hard in December, harder than expected. The December month-to-month IP drop was less than in November, but after a puny gain in October [...]

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 detail on prices, as well as the demand, production and inventory data, along with regional [...]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the total job openings rate increased to 4.7% during December and matched the record high. The job openings rate is the job openings level as a percent of total employment plus the job [...]

Retail sales in the EMU have fallen on hard times in December. EMU retail sales volumes fell by 1.6%, more than swamping the November gain and offsetting the gains for October and November together leaving the three-month growth rate [...]

Retail gasoline prices edged up to $2.28 per gallon last week (-12.7% year-on-year). Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal variation in gasoline pump prices. The seasonally-adjusted price rose to $2.47 per [...]

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) reported that its Small Business Optimism Index declined to 101.2 during January, down for the fifth consecutive month. The index declined 3.1% m/m and it was 5.3% lower y/y. Six [...]

With the never ending saga of Brexit hanging over its head, the U.K. economy is being blasted more by disaffected corporations than by weak consumer spending. Exports have been the weakest growth category of all. That is not too [...]

The Industrial Materials Price Index from the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research (FIBER) increased 3.0% during the last month, but remained 12.1% below the prior year's level. Gains were broad-based, but [...]