Economy in Brief: April 2013

The upcoming summer driving season will potentially be a little easier on motorists' wallets. To gain perspective, Haver Analytics constructs seasonal factors to account for the normal seasonal volatility in gasoline prices. Last [...]

The National Federation of Independent Business reported that its March Small Business Optimism Index fell after three months of increase. The decline in the seasonally adjusted index to 89.5 from 90.8 in February left the index well [...]

German industrial output rose by 0.5% in February after dropping by 0.6% in January. Even so, over three-months, IP is up at just a 0.4% annual rate. With two months of data in for the first quarter, IP is still shrinking at a 1.6% [...]

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 [...]