Economy in Brief

Globally, composite PMIs in August generally firmed a bit while manufacturing remained weak and mixed month-to-month with a small tilt to improvement. Viewed on data over the last four and two-thirds years, manufacturing in the seven [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Applications Index fell 3.1% w/w (+62.6% y/y) during the week ending August 30, following a 6.2% decline in the previous week. Applications to refinance a loan slumped [...]

The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services eased to $54.0 billion during July from $55.5 billion in June, revised from $55.2 billion. A $54.0 billion deficit had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Exports of [...]

The U.S. pump price for gasoline slipped to $2.56 per gallon (-9.2% y/y) last week from the prior week's $2.57 per gallon. Prices have fallen from the early-May high of $2.90. Haver Analytics calculates price figures adjusted for [...]

PREVIOUS>>>>The Composite Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Activity from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) increased to 56.4 during August..... The ISM figures are available in Haver's USECON database, with additional detail [...]

Sequential price trends from 12-months to 6-months to 3-months show the PPI’s annual rate of expansion is steadily slowing and doing so for all three major price categories as well. The exception is for consumer goods where a six- [...]

The value of construction put-in-place improved 0.1% (-2.3% y/y) during July following two months of 0.7% decline. June's drop was revised from -1.3%. A 0.3% rise had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Construction [...]

Activity in the manufacturing is declining. The ISM manufacturing index fell to 49.1 during August from 51.2 in July. It was the lowest level since January 2016 and was below the expansion peak of 60.8 last August. The Action [...]