Economy in Brief

Inflationary pressures moderated last month. Consumer prices inched up 0.1% (2.9% y/y) during June following two months of 0.2% increase. Expectations had been for a 0.2% rise in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The CPI excluding [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped to 214,000 during the week ended July 7, down 18,000 from the 232,000 of the prior week, which was revised up by a marginal 1,000. The Action Economics Forecast Survey looked for [...]

EMU industrial output expands in all sectors in May. All sectors and subsectors in the table gained 1% on the month or more except capital goods where output gained 0.7% month-to-month. Over three months, the rebound is strong with [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Applications Index rose 2.5% last week (-4.9% y/y), following a 0.5% decline during the prior week. The effective interest rate on a 15-year mortgage was little changed [...]

Wholesale trade inventories grew 0.6% (5.9 year-on-year) in May following an unrevised 0.1% April gain. The May reading matched the increase reported in the advance report released on June 27 and compared to the 0.5% growth expected [...]

Portugal's inflation rate eased to a 0.3% gain in June after a 0.4% rise in May. That increase has the three-month inflation pace rising faster than the six-month pace and also represents a higher three-month pace at 4.4% than the [...]

The headline Final Demand Producer Price Index using new methodology gained 0.3% during June following an unrevised 0.5% strengthening in May. The 3.4% y/y rise was the strongest since November 2011. A 0.2% increase had been expected [...]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the total job openings rate during May fell to 4.3% from 4.4% in April, revised from 4.3%. It remained higher than the 3.7% rate twelve months earlier. (The job openings rate is the job [...]