Economy in Brief: February 2016

The OECD has refused to panic over some ongoing erosion in its LEI series (called composite leading indicators or CLIs). Its LEI series for the OECD as a whole is construed as stable even as the series languishes below 100 and has [...]

The Labor Market Conditions Index from the Federal Reserve Board includes 19 indicators of labor market activity, covering the broad categories of unemployment and underemployment. These include jobs, workweeks, wages, vacancies, [...]

Consumer credit outstanding increased $21.3 billion during December following an unrevised $14.0 billion November gain. For all of last year, consumer credit balances grew 6.9% to $3.55 trillion, the same growth as in 2014. Action [...]

Nonfarm payrolls increased 151,000 during January following gains of 262,000 during December and 280,000 in November. Revisions subtracted a net 2,000 jobs in these two months. Expectations had been for a 198,000 rise in the Action [...]

The U.S. foreign trade deficit increased to $43.4 billion in December from November's $42.2 billion, which was revised from $42.4 billion. The December result was modestly larger than the Action Economics Forecast Survey estimate of [...]

In December, total orders in Germany fell by 0.7%. Foreign orders rose for the third consecutive month after falling for three months in a row. Year-over-year foreign orders remain as the weaker of the two series. Domestic orders fell [...]

Nonfarm payrolls increased 151,000 during January following increases of 262,000 during December and 280,000 in November. These revisions subtracted a net 2,000 jobs. Expectations had been for a 198,000 rise in the Action Economic [...]

The outplacement firm of Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that job cut announcements during January jumped to 75,114 (41.6% y/y) following the prior month's unrevised decline to 23,622. The latest was the highest level of in six [...]