Economy in Brief: August 2012

The Mortgage Bankers Association index of total mortgage applications fell 1.8% last week (35.0% y/y). Nevertheless, this month remained up sharply from July. The figures remain close to the high in this cycle. Applications to [...]

German IP fell by 0.9% in June after gaining back part of an outsized drop from April in May. The three month growth rate is a deep negative -5.9% annualized exceeding the pace of decline over 12-months. Construction output is falling [...]

No wonder growth in corporate profitability has slowed. The cost of labor has been on the rise as growth in labor compensation outpaces productivity. Unit labor costs grew 1.7% last quarter following a 5.6% Q1 rise. These gains follow [...]

Consumer credit usage cooled down in June after a blistering start this spring. The Federal Reserve reported that credit grew $6.5B (AR) after a $16.7B rise in May, revised from $17.1B. A $10.5B increase had been expected by Action [...]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated in its Job Openings & Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) that the rate of 2.7% held at its May level and was improved versus the recession low of 1.6%. The job openings rate is the number of job [...]

Chain store sales were roughly unchanged last week (2.4% y/y) after a 1.7% decline during the prior week. However, the weakness contrasts with a solid 3.3% rise during all of July. During the last ten years there has been a 72% [...]

They've been rising for the last five weeks. But last week the pump price of regular gasoline jumped fourteen cents to $3.65 per gallon. Since the low, prices have risen 29 cents (8.6%), the highest since the last week of May. Haver [...]

Indonesia is one of the brighter spots among the emerging economies of the far East. The year to year increase in GDP was 6.39% in the second quarter, up from 6.31% in the first quarter and second only to growth in China. The first [...]