Economy in Brief

Sales of light vehicles decreased 0.8% (-2.6% year-on-year) in February to 16.57 million units at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR). This is the weakest vehicle sales since February 2015. An 8.1% drop in auto sales (-11.6% y/y) [...]

The ISM manufacturing index unexpectedly declined to 54.2 in February, the weakest reading since November 2016. The Action Economics Forecast Survey anticipated an increase to 56.0. Over the past ten years, there has been a 62% [...]

Interestingly only half of the BRICS show manufacturing sectors that are "sinking like a brick". China and Russia have sectors whose indices are very near the 50 level, a level that marks manufacturing stagnation. They each have queue [...]

As a result of the government shutdown the Bureau of Economic Analysis released the delayed December personal income, personal consumption and related prices measures as well as the January personal income data, without outlays and [...]

Real gross domestic product growth slowed to 2.6% q/q, saar (3.1% y/y) in the fourth quarter of 2018 following a 3.4% q/q increase in Q3 and a 4.2% q/q jump in Q2. The Action Economics Forecast had looked for a 2.3% q/q rise while the [...]

The first of the realities to sink in is that wishing does not make it so... despite an all-out charm offensive by Donald Trump he could not coax Kim Jong Un over from the dark side of the farce. Trump still has his charm offensive [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance were 225,000 in the week ended February 23, up 8,000 from the previous week's 217,000; that figure was revised up by 1,000. The Action Economics Forecast Survey projected 221,000 claims this [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending home sales jumped 4.6% in January (-2.3% year-on-year) in after six consecutive monthly declines. The December reading for the index was revised slightly lower to 98.7, [...]