Economy in Brief: April 2009

The manufacturing sector will remain distressed. That is the message reported yesterday in the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI survey of the factory sector. Their composite index of activity fell to a record low level as it dropped to 21 [...]

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank indicated that economic activity in the region continued to contract during April. The Index of General Business conditions in the manufacturing sector came in at -24.4 versus a reading of -35.0 [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance gave another indication that the worst of the labor market's deterioration is moderating. The level of 610,000 claims last week was down from an upwardly revised 663,000 and it was the second [...]

The chart above makes it clear that it is not the consumer sector that is leading IP lower in Europe. Capital goods and intermediate goods output are falling by 23% Year/Year compared to consumer goods output that is down by just [...]

The breather in the housing market downturn proved short-lived as housing starts fell to the second lowest level on record. The Commerce Department indicated that total housing starts in March reversed nearly all of their February [...]

The breather in the housing market downturn proved short-lived as housing starts fell to the second lowest level on record. The Commerce Department indicated that total housing starts in March reversed nearly all of their February [...]

In March, the year-to-year decline in U.S. industrial output of 12.7% was the result of reduced U.S. demand, inventory cutbacks and recessions abroad. To emphasize the size of that decline, it was the largest since the factory [...]

Japans economy continues to show the strains it is under as retail spending fell again in February. The 0.2% drop is a step-up from the 0.1% drop in January which comes on the heels of December’s 1.7% sales collapse. As a result of [...]