Economy in Brief: August 2004

Retail sales rose 0.7% last month following a 0.5% June decline, revised from the initial report of a 1.1% slide. Consensus expectations had been for a 1.1% rise in July sales. Excluding motor vehicles & parts dealers sales rose 0.2% [...]

Spot crude oil prices surged last week with the price of West Texas Intermediate crude rising to a record $44.55 per barrel. The average price for unleaded regular gasoline fell to $1.88 per gallon versus the high of $2.06 in late [...]

The Small Business Optimism Index published by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) jumped 2.8% last month and the increase recovered all of the decline during the prior two months. The percentage of firms expecting [...]

Since February, the Index of Leading Indicators for the Major Seven OECD Countries is virtually unchanged. Flat readings in both June and May pulled the six-month rate of growth to 3.6%, less than half the growth rate when the year [...]

Since February, the Index of Leading Indicators for the Major Seven OECD Countries is virtually unchanged. Flat readings in both June and May pulled the six-month rate of growth to 3.6%, less than half the growth rate when the year [...]

Preliminary data on Germany's international trade position show that the balance on trade in goods declined 1.44 billion euros from 15.22 billion euros in May to 13.78 billion euros in June. The decline was the result of 3.69 billion [...]

As expected, the Federal Reserve raised the target rate for federal funds by 25 basis points to 1.50%. The discount rate also was raised to 2.50%. The decision was unanimous. Perhaps suggesting that rates will be raised even further, [...]

Chain store sales inched 0.1% higher in the opening week of August according to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)-UBS. Sales began the month 0.4% above the July average which rose 0.3% versus June. During the last [...]