Economy in Brief: 2013

The U.S. foreign trade deficit during February eased to $43.0 from $44.5B in January, barely revised from $44.4B. A $44.6B deficit had been expected. The m/m deficit improvement owed to a 0.8% gain (3.2% y/y) in exports while imports [...]

The labor market grudgingly improved last month. Payroll employment increased 88,000 (1.4% y/y) following upwardly revised gains of 268,000 and 148,000 during the prior two months. Consensus had been looking for a 185,000 increase. [...]

The US services index dialed down in April. In Europe services are lower on a broad front. US jobless claims are moving up and there is a hue and cry to blame it on Easter and bad seasonal factors. Maybe there is some of that in the [...]

The outplacement firm of Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that 49,225 job cuts were announced during March. This latest level was down m/m but remained up from the the recovery low of 32,239 reached last August. Job cuts declined [...]

Initial claims for jobless insurance jumped to 385,000 (4.6% y/y) during the week ended March 30 from an unrevised 357,000 during the prior week Consensus expectations were for 349,000 claims. This latest claims figure was the highest [...]

The index of total mortgage applications from the Mortgage Banker Association declined 4.0% (+13.7% y/y) last week and reversed much of the prior week's rise. The latest decline was led by a 5.6% decline (+17.1% y/y) in applications [...]

The Composite Index for the service and construction sectors from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) declined significantly to 54.4 last month from 56.0 during February. This latest level was the lowest since August and [...]

There is no arguing with the fact that EMU inflation is turning lower. One year ago EMU's Year-over-year inflation rate was 2.6% - high by the standards of the ECB but hardly bristling. In March of 2013, one year later, the pace is [...]