Economy in Brief: July 2014

The job market showed signs of improvement to begin the new month. Initial unemployment insurance claims declined to 304,000 (-13.9% y/y) during the week ended July 5 from an unrevised 315,000 in the prior week. The latest claims [...]

The Federal Reserve Board reported that consumer credit outstanding increased $19.6 billion during May following a $26.1 billion April gain, last month reported as $26.8 billion. Expectations were for an $18.1 billion increase, [...]

The International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs reported that chain store sales increased 1.7% (3.3% y/y) last week, the third week of strong gain. Sales began this month 3.6% above the June average which slipped 0.2% [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that their total Mortgage Market Volume Index moved 1.9% higher last week (-33.6% y/y) to the highest level in four weeks. Applications remained two-thirds below the peak in September 2012. [...]

Greek inflation has slowed its rate of descent in June. In March, prices were falling by 1.5% year-over-year. In April that accelerated to -1.6%; in May, prices were falling by 2.1% year-over-year. In June, the year-over-year decline [...]

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline edged two cents lower to $3.68 last week (+5.3% y/y). Prices remained lower than the $3.78 per gallon peak reached in February of last year. To account for seasonal volatility, Haver [...]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in its Job Openings & Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) that the job openings rate increased to 3.2% during May from an unrevised 3.1% in April. The latest level was the highest since September [...]

Germany's trade flows have slowed with both exports and imports falling in May. Exports fell by 1.1% following a strong 2.6% April gain. Imports fell by an outsized 3.4% after climbing by a skinny 0.2% in April. Import growth appears [...]