Economy in Brief: August 2020

• NFIB Small Business Optimism Index declines to 98.8 in July after two monthly gains. • Expectations economy will improve drops 14 percentage points. • Fourth consecutive month of net price reductions. The National Federation of [...]

• Gasoline prices slip marginally. • Crude oil prices improve. • Natural gas prices touch eight-month high. Regular gasoline prices fell to $2.17 per gallon (-17.5% y/y) in the week ended August 10, down one penny from the prior week. [...]

The OECD total amplitude adjusted LEIs are below 100 across the board, a sign that the composite statistics that form the indexes are below their normal values. These readings point to ongoing weak growth although they mark [...]

• Job openings are more numerous. • Hiring expands. • Layoffs are steady while quits rise. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the total job openings rate rose to 4.1% during June, the highest level since February and up from [...]

• Nonrevolving borrowing usage jumps again. • Charge card balances shrink. Consumers are spending more on credit. Consumer credit outstanding increased $9.0 billion during June following a $14.4 billion May decline, revised from [...]

• Nonrevolving borrowing usage jumps again. • Charge card balances shrink. Consumers are spending more on credit. Consumer credit outstanding increased $9.0 billion during June following a $14.4 billion May decline, revised from [...]

June provides the last observation to complete second quarter data. With that, all full Q2 gauges show extreme weakness. However, IP also clocks improvement and mostly two-months-in-a-row of improvement in June and May- that is two- [...]

• Rise in jobs slows after bounce-back from coronavirus outbreak. • Earnings improve modestly. • Unemployment rate declines to four-month low. The labor market continues to improve. Nonfarm payroll employment increased 1.763 million [...]