Economy in Brief: July 2013

Consumers regained their footing this month and ramped up spending. The International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs reported that chain store sales surged 3.0% last week (2.9% y/y) to a record high. That gain raised [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that total applications for a home mortgage fell 4.0% (-33.3% y/y) last week, extending the decline to 43.6% since early-May. Last week's shortfall reflected a 4.4% drop (-38.4% y/y) in [...]

UK manufacturing took an unexpected sharp turn lower, falling by 0.8% in May. The climb was led by a sharp decline in consumer goods output which fell 2.9% on the month; that made it the second consecutive monthly drop. Capital goods [...]

The price of regular gasoline edged lower last week to $3.49 per gallon. That remained its lowest level since early January. Prices were well below the $3.78 per gallon peak reached late in February. Haver Analytics constructs [...]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in its May Job Openings & Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) that the job openings rate remained steady m/m at 2.7% in May. The trend, however, has been sharply upward. The job openings rate is the [...]

The National Federation of Independent Business reported that its Small Business Optimism Index slipped during June to a seasonally adjusted 93.5 from 94.4 in May. The figure, nevertheless, was just below its highest level of the [...]

Consumer credit saw a marked monthly gain in May, but the year-on-year trend remained steady. The May total was up $19.6B, following April's $10.9B, revised slightly from $11.1B reported initially. The y/y move, though, was 5.8%, [...]

According to the OECD's trend-restored and amplitude-adjusted indices, Japan and the US point to growth that is firming. In the euro-Area, European growth is gaining momentum. Italy's OECD metric shows positive momentum despite [...]