Economy in Brief: 2019

The labor market remains historically quite robust. Initial claims for unemployment insurance were unchanged at 218,000 in week ended June 1 (the previous week’s reading was revised up slightly from 215,000) and remain around their [...]

Output per hour in the nonfarm business sector grew 3.4% (SAAR) during Q1'19, revised from 3.6% reported last month. The increase followed an unrevised 1.3% gain in Q4'18. It remained the strongest increase since Q3'14. During the [...]

The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services eased during April to $50.8 billion from $51.9 in March, revised from $50.0 billion. Expectations had been for a $50.7 billion deficit in the Action Economics Survey. Exports declined 2.2% [...]

Germany's real new orders rose by 0.3% in April, marking the second monthly rise in a row as orders rose by 0.8% in March. Orders last rose two months in a row in September-October of 2018. A rebound- but still weak While this news is [...]

The labor market remains historically quite robust. Initial claims for unemployment insurance were unchanged at 218,000 in week ended June 1 (the previous week's reading was revised up slightly from 215,000) and remain around their [...]

The EMU shows both manufacturing and services weakening more or less progressively. Over three months there is minor improvement in the services PMI compared to six months, but the PMI rankings in the EMU place the headline PMI as [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Applications Index rose 1.5% (12.7% y/y) during the week ending May 31 after the prior week's 3.3% decline. The rise reflected a 6.4% increase (32.6% y/y) in [...]

The Composite Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Activity from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) increased to 56.9 during May after falling to 55.5 in April. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected stability at 55.5. [...]