Economy in Brief: June 2013

Nonfarm payroll employment increased 175,000 (1.6% y/y) during May. That followed revised gains of 149,000 and 142,000 during the prior two months, earlier reported as 165,000 and 138,000, respectively. Consensus expectations were for [...]

Federal Reserve flow-of-funds data for Q1 show the net volume of credit market borrowing at a $2.4 trillion annual rate, very similar to Q4's $2.5 trillion; the earlier figure is revised somewhat from $2.3 trillion reported before. [...]

There was a 2.3% drop in real German orders in April compared to March. The drop wiped-out the March gain. And while that does take the glow off of some of the recent data that has been suggesting improvement or lesser downdraft in [...]

Initial unemployment insurance claims fell to 346,000 (-7.5% y/y) during the week ended June 1 from a revised 357,000, initially reported as 354,000. Consensus expectations were for 345,000 claims. The four week moving average of [...]

In the European Monetary Union (EMU) the services sector improved to a reading of 47.24 from 47.01 in April. The rise in the May reading is minor and it still leaves the service sector in a contracting position in the Eurozone. [...]

Nonfarm business sector productivity growth during Q1'13 was revised slightly downward to 0.5% (SAAR) from 0.7% reported initially. That was a rebound from the 1.7% decline during Q4'12. It left the y/y gain of 0.9% on a par with the [...]

The Activity Index for the service and construction sectors from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) improved to 53.7 during May from 53.1 during April. This latest level, nevertheless, remained the lowest in nine months and [...]

Companies remain hesitant to significantly ramp up new job creation. The ADP/Moody's National Employment Report showed a 136,000 rise (1.6% y/y) in non-farm private sector jobs last month. That followed revised increases of 112,000 [...]