Economy in Brief: August 2015

The ZEW current index continued its slow slog higher in August as expectations backtracked. Expectations are below their historic midpoint as they are higher fully 55.8% of the time, thus lower about 45% of the time. The current index [...]

The Labor Market Conditions Index from the Federal Reserve Board includes 19 indicators of labor market activity, covering the broad categories of unemployment and underemployment. These include jobs, workweeks, wages, vacancies, [...]

France's business survey by the Bank of France ticked higher in July; however, remaining off its recent peak. The index edged up to 97.96 from June's 97.88, still below May's 99.08 reading. The July reading is slightly above its [...]

Consumer credit outstanding increased $20.7 billion during June following a $16.5 billion May rise, initially reported as $16.1 billion. Expectations were for a $17.1 billion increase according to the Action Economics Forecast Survey. [...]

Nonfarm payroll employment during July increased 215,000 (2.1% y/y) following upwardly revised increases of 231,000 and 260,000 in June and May. The latest increase fell a little short of expectations for 221,000 in the Action [...]

German industrial production dropped in June, falling by 1.4% month-to-month. Overall IP has been steadily decelerating with annualized growth rates shrinking or turning progressively to larger negative numbers as the horizon [...]

Nonfarm payroll employment during July increased 215,000 (2.1% y/y) following upwardly revised increases of 231,000 and 260,000 in June and May. The latest increase fell short of expectations for 221,000 in the Action Economics [...]

The outplacement firm of Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that job cut announcements during July jumped to 105,696 (125.4% y/y) and added to June's unrevised increase of 44,842. Layoffs spiked higher in the computer, electronics, [...]