Economy in Brief: November 2012

Higher petroleum costs raised U.S. import prices by another 1.5% last month following an unrevised 1.1% September increase. Higher petroleum prices led the rise with a strong 1.3% gain (1.9% y/y). The Action Economics survey looked [...]

The U.S. foreign trade deficit eased to $41.5B in September from $43.8B in August, revised from $44.1B. This was noticeably better than the Action Economics consensus forecast increase to $45.0B. This was also the most favorable [...]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday in its Job Openings & Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) that the September job openings rate slipped to 2.6% from a revised 2.7%. It still was improved versus the recession low of 1.6%. The [...]

Hurricane Sandy closed offices and created power shortages that left individuals unable to file claims for unemployment insurance. Initial jobless insurance claims fell to 355,000 in the week ended November 3 from 363,000 the week [...]

Consumer credit increased $11.4B in September, following a modestly revised $18.3B gain in August, the Federal Reserve reported. The September gain was slightly larger than the $10.3B forecasters expected, according to the Action [...]

Nonfarm payrolls grew 171,000 during October following revised gains of 148,000 and 192,000 during the prior two months, earlier reported as 114,000 and 142,000, respectively. A 121,000 increase was expected. Moderate job gains [...]

German manufacturing is beginning to be seriously affected by the slow downs in other euro area countries. German Manufacturing and Mining Sales declined 2.9% in September from August and were 2.5% below September of a year ago. New [...]

Final composite diffusion indexes of purchasing managers for October are beginning to appear. Today, Ireland and the U. K. in Europe were heard from, as well as from Japan, India and China in Asia. Purchasing managers in Ireland were [...]