Economy in Brief: June 2012

Japan's IP fell by 0.2% in April after surging by 1.3% in March. The industrial production growth rates have been progressively diminishing over more recent periods. Only transportation after slowing from an unsustainably strong pace [...]

The recent slow pace of labor market improvement has eased some more. That's the message from the rise in initial claims for unemployment insurance to 386,000 during the week of June 9 from 380,000 in the prior week, revised up from [...]

Consumer prices fell 0.3% last month versus an expected 0.2% decline. The figure pulled the y/y increase to 1.7%, down from its peak of 3.9% last September. Prices less food and energy increased a steady and expected 0.2%, for the [...]

EMU IP fell by 1.7% in April after rising by 1.1% in March. Over three months all the major IP categories show negative growth rates. Of the eight EU/EMU nations in the table six show decline in IP over three-months. Over six months [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association index of total mortgage applications surged 18.0% (62.4% y/y) last week to the highest level since early-2009. Applications to refinance jumped 19.2% (85.0% y/y) while home purchase applications [...]

The U.S. Commerce Department reported that business inventories rose 0.4% during April. The modest gain lowered the y/y rise to 6.0%, its least since July of 2010. Business sales again rose 0.2%, but the y/y increase nonetheless fell [...]

The producer price index for finished goods fell 1.0% during May following an unrevised 0.2% decline during April. The latest was the largest one-month decline since July 2009. Expectations were for a 0.6% May drop. Core pricing power [...]

That makes two consecutive months during which consumers lost their inclination to spend. Retail sales slipped 0.2% during May following downward revisions to sales during the prior two months. The April decline of 0.2% was revised [...]