Economy in Brief: April 2011

The U.S. Commerce Department reported that business inventories rose a lessened 0.5% in February following a 1.0% January gain, last month reported at 0.9%. A 0.8% gain in inventories had been expected by Bloomberg. The slower rate of [...]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in its Job Openings & Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) that the February job openings rate improved to 2.3% from an unrevised 2.1% during January. The latest reading was the highest since April [...]

Europe's consumer sector is losing momentum as capital goods are gaining speed. Meanwhile intermediate goods seem to catching on and accelerating after a brief lull in momentum. Consumer goods sequential growth rates have pitched a [...]

Total retail & food service sales rose by 0.4% last month following a 1.1% February increase, revised up from 1.0%. Sales have risen for nine consecutive months and the latest increase left the y/y gain firm at 7.1%. The March rise [...]

The U.S. Government's budget deficit during the second quarter of FY 2011 totaled $460.4B, according to figures released today by the U.S. Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget. That was greatly expanded from last year's [...]

Zew's assessment of current conditions is flying high. But Zew expectations are moderate to low. Still with current conditions so good there is nothing to worry about, right? RIGHT? Answer me please... Paint by numbers; get depressed [...]

Petroleum prices have nowhere to go but up. Last week, the pump price for regular gasoline jumped eleven cents to $3.79 per gallon, the highest level since September, 2008 and more-than-double the December, 2008 low of $1.61. [...]

Surging oil prices lifted overall U.S. import prices last month. Prices jumped 2.7% after an unrevised 1.4% February increase. The gain was stronger than Consensus expectations for a 2.1% rise. It was paced by a 10.5% surge in [...]