Economy in Brief: 2012

The U.S. foreign trade deficit in February declined to $46.0B versus a little-revised $52.5B in January. Expectations were for a deficit of $52.0B. Exports ticked up just 0.1% (9.3% y/y) but imports declined 2.7% (+7.6% y/y). In [...]

The producer price index for finished goods was unchanged during March following an unrevised 0.4% February gain, below expectations for a 0.3% increase. Inflation pressures, however, were still evident as core pricing power [...]

Despite lower interest rates, mortgage applications have yet to move higher. Last week the index of total mortgage applications fell 2.4% w/w to 678.8 (+52.9% y/y), down for the eighth week in the last nine. Fewer applications to [...]

Industrial production is slowing on a broad front across the Euro-Area. In February five of seven bellwether Euro-Area or EU nations had declines in their production indices over three-months; the best of their performance is flat. [...]

U.S. import prices increased 1.3% (3.4% y/y) last month after a revised 0.1% dip during February, initially pegged as +0.4%. A 0.8% March rise had been expected. Year-to-year, higher oil prices and the lower value of the dollar have [...]

The March HSBC PMI for manufacturing in China was 48.3, below the 50 mark, suggesting a slowdown in the manufacturing sector. At the same time, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing reported their manufacturing PMI for [...]

Finally, some relief. Pump prices for regular gasoline held steady last week at $3.94 per gallon but still were their highest since last May. The current level is up seventy cents (22%) since year-end. Haver Analytics' seasonally- [...]

Labor market improvement continued as indicated by the February job openings rate. For February, it held at a 2.6% for the third consecutive month which was the recovery's high. January was revised up from 2.5%. The figures are in the [...]