Economy in Brief: August 2014

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline declined another penny last week to $3.51 (-1.6% y/y). Prices remained down from the $3.78 per gallon peak reached in February of last year. To account for seasonal volatility, Haver [...]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in its Job Openings & Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) that the job openings rate jumped to 3.3% during June from an unrevised 3.2% in May. The latest level was the highest since June 2007. The job [...]

Germany's ZEW current index fell sharply in August to 44.3 from 61.8 in July. The current index had peaked at 67.7 in June in this cycle. It's now on a two-month drop. Expectations, the more closely watched component, fell to 8.6 in [...]

The National Federation of Independent Business reported that its Small Business Optimism Index edged up to 95.7 during July, making up half of its June decline. The latest level remained near its highest since September 2007, just [...]

Income growth expectations, as measured by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, deteriorated in July. The 2.2% expectation for next year's earnings growth reversed most of June's improvement, although it remained up slightly from the [...]

The OECD's leading economic indicator for June posted a reading of 100.5, the same as it's been for the last eight months. The OECD portrays this as indicating ongoing expansion. However, there clearly is no acceleration in the cards. [...]

Inventories at the wholesale level rose 0.3% last month (7.9% y/y) following a 0.3% May increase, revised from 0.5%. Inventories of durable goods gained 0.7% (8.8% y/y). The rise was led by a 3.2% surge (11.4% y/y) in metal [...]

German activity data have been weakening recently. There is speculation that the sanctions on Russia are an important factor. But trade data for June show some rebound in German trade flows. Exports rose 0.9% in June as imports [...]