Economy in Brief: February 2019

The Composite Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Activity from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) fell to 56.7 during January from December's 58.0, revised from 57.6. The index has been declining since a high of 60.8 in [...]

Retail gasoline prices of $2.25 per gallon last week (-14.5% y/y) were little changed from their end-of-year level. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal variation in gasoline pump prices. The seasonally- [...]

The Sentix economic expectations continue to languish. The index is hovering in its lowest levels since 2012 as the ECB begins to remove its 'special sauce.' Europe has been showing much weaker signals on economic activity recently. [...]

Manufacturers' orders declined 0.6% (+4.1% y/y) during November following an unrevised 2.1% October fall. The Action Economics Forecast survey looked for a 0.4% rise. Durable goods orders rebounded 0.7% m/m (5.3% y/y) after a 2.1% [...]

Sales of light vehicles fell 4.8% (-2.8% y/y) during January to 16.70 million units (SAAR), the lowest level since August 2017. A 7.9% decline (-1.9% y/y) in light truck sales to 11.24 million units led the decline after a 0.7% gain [...]

Only six of the 17 manufacturing PMI readings in the table did not weaken in January, reflecting a broad tendency of manufacturing conditions to ease in the month. In January, five countries saw improvement and one was unchanged. [...]

After having collapsed 4.5 points in December to 54.3 (the lowest reading since December 2016), the ISM manufacturing index rebounded to 56.6 in January. Expectations were for a further decline to 54.1. Still, the January reading [...]

The job market remains firm. Nonfarm payrolls increased 304,000 (1.9% y/y) during January, but December's gain was revised downward to 222,000 from 312,000 reported last month. November's increase was revised up slightly to 196,000 [...]