Economy in Brief: February 2011

What started tentatively last year has turned into somewhat of a rout in the U.S. credit market. While short-term rates have barely budged, long-term rates have risen substantially as recent data suggest the economic recovery is [...]

Record snowfalls depressed hiring last month. Nonfarm payrolls increased just 36,000 last month after upwardly revised gains of 121,000 in December and 93,000 in November. Nevertheless, the rise disappointed Consensus forecasts for a [...]

Retail sales in the Zone fell by 0.6% in December. They are lower over 12-months by 1% as well. German sales are lower Yr/Yr and UK sales are flat. Nonfood retail sales fell in December and are lower by 1.3% Yr/Yr in the Zone. The [...]

Like the factory sector, the U.S. service sector continued to improve last month. The January Composite Index for the service and construction sectors from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) rose to 59.4 from 57.1 in December. [...]

Labor productivity in the nonfarm business sector rose 2.6% (AR) and roughly repeated its Q3 increase. The rise exceeded Consensus expectations for a 2.0% increase. Nevertheless, y/y growth decelerated to 1.7% following its upward [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance last week fell back and retraced most of the prior week's jump. The decline to 415,000 from a revised 457,000, initially reported as 454,000, was greater than expectations for a decline to [...]

The outplacement firm of Challenger, Grey & Christmas reported that the level of layoffs during January picked up slightly to 38,519. The level still was near the lowest since June 2000. Despite the decline in layoffs, the [...]

As expected, unit sales of light vehicles were roughly unchanged last month versus December at 12.62M units (SAAR). (Seasonal adjustment of these figures is provided by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.) Nevertheless, sales were [...]