Economy in Brief

The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services widened further to $54.02 billion in September from a slightly upwardly revised $53.31 billion in August. This was the largest deficit since February. A deficit of $53.4 billion had been [...]

The labor market is robust, strong enough to lift workers' pay. Average hourly earnings increased 0.2% during October and raised the y/y increase to 3.1%, the strongest gain since April 2009. The rise matched expectations in the [...]

Output per hour in the nonfarm business sector grew 2.2% (SAAR, 1.3% y/y)) in Q3'18 following a 3.0% gain in Q2. A 2.0% rise had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Nonfarm business output rose 4.1% (3.7% y/y) [...]

Sales of light vehicles increased 0.7% (-2.2% y/y) during October to 17.57 million units (SAAR), the highest level since November 2017. The latest gain followed a 4.3% September jump. Passenger car sales rose 4.8% (-12.8% y/y) last [...]

Global manufacturing PMIs mostly weakened in October as 10 of 17 reporting countries/regions were weaker on the month. That followed a month in which 11 of 17 weakened and the monthly before when 9 of 17 weakened. Over the last three [...]

The value of construction put-in-place was unchanged during September (7.2% y/y) following a 0.8% August rise, initially reported as 0.1%. A 0.2% increase had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. In the private [...]

The ISM composite index of activity in the factory sector fell to 57.7 in October from 59.8 in September. It was the lowest index level since April. A reading of 59.0 had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. During [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance edged down to 214,000 (-8.5% y/y) during the week ended October 27 from 216,000 in the previous week, which was revised up by 1,000. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected a reading of [...]