Economy in Brief: August 2013

Improved labor markets are supporting confidence; thus the consumer is ramping up credit usage. During June, consumer credit outstanding grew $13.8B following a $17.5B May increase, revised from $19.6B. The y/y increase was stable at [...]

Germany: an export-led growth spurt in action- As go capital goods, so goes Germany. German industrial orders have been increasing and showing that the greater part of their increase is coming from the foreign sector. Germany has long [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that total applications for a home mortgage were fairly stable last week. The total market index ticked up 0.2% (-46.75 y/y) but that was set against a decline since early-May of 47.6%. Home [...]

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline slipped 2 cents to $3.63 last week (-0.4% y/y). Nevertheless, it remained near the highest price since early-April. Prices remained down from the $3.78 per gallon peak reached late in [...]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in its June Job Openings & Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) that the job openings rate remained steady m/m at 2.8% in June. May was revised up from 2.7%. The trend, however, has been sharply [...]

Germany is the strong economy of Europe. However, Germany is a strange strong economy. As the table above shows, in June, German orders are rebounding, rising by 3.8% after falling for two months in a row. Foreign orders have now [...]

The U.S. foreign trade deficit fell sharply during June to its shallowest level since October 2009. The $34.3 billion deficit compared to a revised $44.1 billion in May, initially reported as $45.0 billion. A $43.5 billion deficit had [...]

The chart plots the course of the services PMIs for the European monetary union versus three of the BRIC countries: India, China and Russia. It shows that the developing economy service sectors have tended to be stronger than Europe [...]