Economy in Brief

The Chicago Purchasing Managers Business Barometer fell back to 58.7 in March after having surged to 64.7 in February. The February reading had been the highest since December 2017. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected a [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell 9,000 in the week ended March 16 to 221,000.... Continuing claims for unemployment insurance fell in the week ended March 9 to 1.750 million ... Data on weekly unemployment claims going [...]

The EU Commission Index for the EMU fell to a steeper-than-expected 105.5 in March from 106.2 in February. The fall takes the headline index down to a 69.9 percentile queue standing among its historic results, a moderate but firm [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending home sales declined 1.0% (-4.9% y/y) during February following a 4.3% gain, revised from 4.6%. Sales have declined 9.7% since the peak in April 2016. Sales were mixed [...]

Economic growth was weaker than originally estimated at the end of last year. Real gross domestic product growth slowed to 2.2% in Q4'18, revised from 2.6%, following a 3.4% increase in Q3. The Action Economics Forecast Survey [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance decreased to 211,000 (-2.8% year-on-year) during the week ended March 23 from a downwardly-revised 216,000 in the previous week. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected 224,000 claims. [...]

The U.S. current account deficit widened to $134.4 billion during Q4'18 from $126.6 billion in Q3. It remained the largest quarterly deficit since Q4 2008 and compared to $131.1 billion expected in the Action Economics Forecast [...]

The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services fell to $51.15 billion during January from $59.90 billion in December, revised from $59.77 billion. A deficit of $57.7 billion had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. [...]