Economy in Brief: June 2013

Nonfarm business sector productivity growth during Q1'13 was revised slightly downward to 0.5% (SAAR) from 0.7% reported initially. That was a rebound from the 1.7% decline during Q4'12. It left the y/y gain of 0.9% on a par with the [...]

The price of regular gasoline held steady last week at $3.65 per gallon and remained down just slightly versus last year. Prices remain below the $3.78 per gallon peak reached late in February. Haver Analytics constructs seasonal [...]

The International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs reported that chain store sales jumped 1.9% last week (4.3% y/y). That was enough to lift this month's starting point 0.6% above the May average. For all of May sales [...]

The U.S. foreign trade deficit deepened during April to $40.3B from $37.1B in March, revised from $38.8B. A $41.0B deficit had been expected. Data were revised back to January 1999. A 2.4% rebound (-1.4% y/y) in imports caused the m/m [...]

In May the manufacturing index for the European Monetary Union rose to 48.32 from 46.69. Month-to-month the manufacturing barometers improved for every country in the table. The greatest month-to-month gain was in Denmark which [...]

Unit sales of light motor vehicles recovered during May by 2.6% m/m (9.7% y/y) to 15.31M (SAAR), according to the Autodata Corporation. These sales compare to the recovery peak of 15.54M in November. Sales outperformed expectations [...]

Building activity improved marginally during April. The value of construction put-in-place gained 0.4% (4.3% y/y) after a revised 0.8% March decline and a 0.8% February increase, revised from -1.7% and 1.5%, respectively. A 0.9% gain [...]

Forward momentum in the factory sector has disappeared. The Composite Index of manufacturing activity from the Institute for Supply Management fell to 49.0 during May from an unrevised 50.7 in April. Below the break-even point of 50, [...]