Economy in Brief: May 2020

The U.S. Commerce Department reported that during the first quarter of this year, retail sales via the internet (E-Commerce) rose 2.4% (SA) from Q4. The gain followed a 2.2% Q4 rise. E-Commerce sales increased a steady 14.8% y/y. This [...]

Stock markets and ZEW experts have something in common but much less in common with the Dr. 'Faucis' and U.S. Democratic Party. ZEW experts see quite brightening expectations and stock markets have been recovering at a very rapid [...]

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• Housing sector continues under pressure due to coronavirus shutdowns. • Starts decline to five-year low. • Falling permits suggest more weakness to come. New residential home building continues to weaken dramatically. Housing starts [...]

• Gasoline prices continue to increase. • Crude oil prices rise to highest level since early-March. • Natural gas prices fall to six-week low. Retail gasoline prices increased to $1.88 per gallon (-34.2% y/y) in the week ended May 18 [...]

Japan has not seen a measureable percentage increase in real GDP since Q2 2019. Real GDP fell by 3.4% annualized in Q1 2020. It fell by 7.3% in Q4 2019 and it was flat in percentage terms in Q3 2019. On those numbers, Japan is in [...]

• Housing market remains notably weak. • Few are looking to buy a home. The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders-Wells Fargo moved up to 37 during May (-43.9% y/y) after collapsing to 30 in [...]

• • • The Empire State Manufacturing Index of General Business Conditions collapsed to -78.2 in April.............. The Empire State figures are diffusion indexes, which are calculated by subtracting the percentage of respondents [...]