Economy in Brief

The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services fell to $43.1 billion in May from a slightly downwardly revised $46.1 billion during April............ The international trade data can be found in Haver's USECON database. Detailed figures [...]

The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services widened to $46.3 billion in June from May’s $43.2 billion; May was revised marginally from $43.1 billion. The June result was quite close to the Action Economics Forecast Survey estimate of [...]

The Composite Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Activity from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) declined to a still healthy 55.7 in July from 59.1 in June. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected a reading of 58.8 for [...]

Earlier signs of strength in the labor market cooled during July. Nonfarm payrolls increased 157,000 (1.6% y/y) following a 248,000 June rise which was revised up from 213,000 estimated last month. The rise in May payrolls also was [...]

Activity in the factory sector continues to improve. Manufacturers' orders increased 0.7% (6.1% y/y) during June following an unrevised 0.4% May increase. Manufacturing shipments surged 1.0% (8.4% y/y) after a 0.6% May rise. Durable [...]

On the face of it, the PPI situation in the EMU is looking rather grim. Inflation is at 3.6% year-on-year and over six month. Skipping the two highest and two lowest inflation rates in the table of 13 members, inflation ranges from a [...]

Initial unemployment insurance claims inched higher to 218,000 during the week ended July 28 from an unrevised 217,000 during the prior week. Claims remained near the lowest level since late-1969. The Action Economics Forecast Survey [...]

The value of construction put-in-place increased 0.4% month-on-month in May (4.5% year-on-year), slightly less than the 0.5% expected by the Action Economics Forecast Survey. April's gain was cut in half to 0.9% m/m and March's drop [...]