Economy in Brief

News headlines on this report say that the PPI in the EMU accelerated in February. Do not believe it. I have long had my quibbles with how journalists describe economic reports. Today’s PPI report is an example. The headline PPI [...]

U.S. retail gasoline prices increased this week to $2.69 per gallon (-0.3% y/y), up from the low of $2.24 early in January. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal variation in gasoline pump prices. The [...]

New orders for durable goods fell 1.6% (+1.8% y/y) during February following a 0.1% January uptick, revised from 0.4%. A 1.0% easing had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The decline was led by a 4.8% (-0.8% y/y) [...]

The value of construction put-in-place increased 1.0% (1.1% y/y) during February following a 2.5% January increase, revised from 1.3%. A 0.1% easing had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The value of public [...]

Global markets cheered as China's manufacturing PMI registered positive growth in March for the first time since October of last year. Still, the reading is weak and a bare-bones positive at 50.5. Ranking the headline diffusion index [...]

The ISM manufacturing index unexpectedly rose to 55.3 in March from 54.2 in February, but remained close to its weakest level since late-2016. The index remained below its expansion peak 60.8 last August. The Action Economics Forecast [...]

Total business inventories increased 0.8% (5.3% year-on-year) during January, the second consecutive monthly gain of this magnitude (this report was delayed as a result of the government shutdown). Total business sales rose 0.3% (2.8% [...]

Total retail sales fell 0.2% during February (+2.2% y/y) following a 0.7% January increase, revised from 0.2%. A 0.2% gain had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Retail sales excluding motor vehicles and parts [...]