Economy in Brief: 2009

The Labor Department indicated that recent job market improvement stalled last week as suggested by a moderate rise in initial claims for unemployment insurance. The rise to 474,000 from an unrevised 457,000 retraced much of the prior [...]

The labor market remains soft. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in its Job Openings & Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) that job availability during October gave back half of the September increase with a 3.1% decline. Openings [...]

Despite faster export than import growth in October, the UK trade deficit widened in October as the larger sterling size of imports translated a smaller percentage gain in imports into a larger gain in sterling terms than for exports. [...]

Low interest rates continue to support the housing market. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that mortgage applications rose 8.5% last week, the second week of firm gain that continued what has been a 50% rise since the late- [...]

Gasoline prices haven't moved much during the last four weeks. The pump price for regular gasoline of $2.63 per gallon last week was down two cents from the November average but remained in the tight range between $2.47 and $2.69 [...]

Gasoline prices haven't moved much during the last four weeks. The pump price for regular gasoline of $2.63 per gallon last week was down two cents from the November average but remained in the tight range between $2.47 and $2.69 [...]

German Industrial Production declined almost 2% to 95.7 (2005=100) in October, from 97.5 in September. Although expectations had been for a small rise, yesterday's sobering report on new orders should have dampened expectations. Among [...]

After improving this spring, small business' optimism has leveled off. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) reported their small business optimism index during November dipped 0.9% to 88.3 after two months of slight [...]