Economy in Brief: September 2013

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that its Empire State Factory Index of General Business Conditions for September slipped to 6.29 from an unrevised 8.24 in August. The latest figure fell short of expectations for 9.0 [...]

The producer price index for finished goods rose 0.3% in August (+1.4% y/y) following an unchanged performance during July, which was unrevised. Consensus expectations were looking for a 0.1% rise. Prices excluding food & energy, [...]

The reading from the Reuters/University of Michigan survey of consumer sentiment during mid-September fell sharply to 76.8 (-1.9% y/y) from an 82.1 final reading for August. Consensus expectations had been for near stability at 82.0. [...]

Retail sales rose 0.2% in August (+4.7% y/y), less than in July, but that month and June were both revised modestly higher, July to 0.4% from 0.2% and June to 0.7% from 0.6%. A 0.4% rise had been expected according to Action Economics [...]

Both the European Monetary Union and the European Union are seeing declines in the number of unemployed over the past two months. The pace of the decline slowed in July compared to June as both regions saw the number of unemployed [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance in the September 7 week dropped to 292,000 from 323,000 the week before, which was unrevised. The September 7 figure is the first below 300,000 since May 12, 2007, which was 297,000, and is [...]

Trends in industrial production output in the European Monetary Union continue to skim below the surface of unchanged. While capital goods output has flirted with year-over-year increases as has consumer goods output, zero seems to be [...]

Inventories at the wholesale level recovered by 0.1% (+2.2% y/y) during July following a 0.2% fall (unrevised) drop in June and two prior declines. The upturn came in durable goods inventories, which rose 0.6% in July (+4.5% y/y) [...]