Economy in Brief: 2011

Higher energy & food prices were behind much of last month's increase in consumer prices. The Commerce Department reported that prices rose 0.4% in April after an unrevised 0.5% March gain. The increase matched Consensus expectations. [...]

The U.S. Commerce Department reported yesterday that business inventories rose 1.0% in March after a revised 0.7% February increase, originally reported as 0.5%. A 0.9% March gain in inventories had been expected by Bloomberg. The [...]

Initial claims for jobless insurance fell last week to 434,000 after the jump to 478,000 during the prior period, initially reported as 474,000. The latest figure roughly matched Consensus expectations for 430,000 claims. The four- [...]

The rise in gasoline prices could be sapping strength from spending on other goods. Or, weak April retail sales could be due to a payback after earlier strength. We'll know more in the next few months. Total retail & food service [...]

The U.S. producer price index for finished goods increased 0.8% during April, similar to the 0.7% March gain. The rise was stronger than the 0.6% Consensus expectation and the y/y increase of 6.6% was its strongest since September [...]

The German CPI is up by 0.3% in April. Headline German CPI inflation rose by 0.2%. Core CPI inflation rose by 0.3%. Broadly, these measures of German inflation continue to accelerate. Core inflation reached it low point in 2009 began [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that overall mortgage applications rose 8.2% last week, the second week of strong gain. Applications to purchase a home rose 6.7% w/w but remained down by one-quarter from last year. During [...]

Higher oil prices acted to deepen the U.S. trade deficit to its widest since last June. The foreign trade deficit increased in March to $48.2B versus $45.4B in February, revised from $45.8B reported initially. Expectations had been [...]