Economy in Brief

Initial unemployment insurance claims declined to 234,000 in the week ended February 2 after a jump to an unrevised 253,000 during the prior week. The shortfall reversed nearly half of the previous week's increase to the highest level [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Applications Index fell 2.5% (-9.0% y/y) during the week ended February 1, about the same as during the prior two weeks. These declines followed sharp increases early [...]

German industrial orders fell for the second month in a row. The drop produced the second substantial drop in a row for foreign orders as well with declines of 2.3% m/m in both December and November. Domestic orders fell by 0.6% in [...]

The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services lessened to $49.31 during November from $55.70 billion in October, revised from $55.49 billion. A deficit of $54.0 billion had been expected by the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Exports [...]

The beat goes on…only it is much fainter than it has been, sort of like Sonny without Cher. Growth does remain in gear, but it is some of the weakest we have seen in the last four years and that is what the rank/queue standings in the [...]

The Composite Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Activity from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) fell to 56.7 during January from December's 58.0, revised from 57.6. The index has been declining since a high of 60.8 in [...]

Retail gasoline prices of $2.25 per gallon last week (-14.5% y/y) were little changed from their end-of-year level. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal variation in gasoline pump prices. The seasonally- [...]

The Sentix economic expectations continue to languish. The index is hovering in its lowest levels since 2012 as the ECB begins to remove its 'special sauce.' Europe has been showing much weaker signals on economic activity recently. [...]