Economy in Brief: January 2011

Haver Analytics constructs an ISM Composite Index based on the previously published ISM manufacturing and nonmanufacturing reports. For December, the index rose to 57.1, its highest level since 2006. From September-to-December, the [...]

Consumers are borrowing but they're not using their credit cards. The Federal Reserve reported Friday that consumer credit outstanding rose $1.4B during November following a $7.0B October increase that was nearly double the initial [...]

German IP fell in November dropping by 0.7% following a surge of 3% in October. While the growth rate is half that for Yr/Yr growth it remains about the same for three months as for six months, and those rates are still fairly strong. [...]

The labor market just can't seem to generate a full head of steam. Nonfarm payrolls rose 103,000 last month after upwardly revised gains during the prior two months. But the rise disappointed Consensus forecasts for a 150,000 gain and [...]

EMU confidence rose in December reaching the 70th percentile in its queue of values and topping its average by over six percentage points. Germany, France, Italy and the UK are the EU members in the table whose overall sentiment [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose last week to 409,000 from 391,000 (initially reported as 388,000). The latest was higher than expectations for 400,000 according to Bloomberg. Nevertheless, claims remained near the [...]

The outplacement firm of Challenger, Grey & Christmas reported that the level of layoffs during December fell sharply to 32,004. The level was the lowest since June 2000. For the full year, planned layoffs totaled 529,973, down 58.9% [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that overall mortgage applications continued to stabilize last week. Applications rose 2.3% and reversed the prior week's decline, both of which came on the heels of an 18.6% mid-month plunge. [...]