Economy in Brief: 2004

US retail sales surged 1.2% in December on the strength of a 4.3% (8.9% y/y) jump in spending on motor vehicles. Consensus expectations had been for a 1.0% gain following the 0.1% rise in November sales which was unrevised. Sales [...]

The lackluster performance of the past two years of industrial production in France and in the UK continued in November with declines in both countries. In France, total industrial production declined 0.40% but was 1.21% above [...]

Chain store sales fell 0.4% last week and that followed a 0.1% dip in the opening week of 2004, according to the ICSC-UBS survey. So far in January sales are up 1.9% versus December. During the last five years there has been a 61% [...]

German industrial production rose 1.33% in November after a revised 2.8% rise in October.(Unrevised figure was 2.4%). This is the first time two successive month to month increases were recorded since early 2002. In spite of the [...]

The Index of Leading Indicators for the Major Seven OECD Countries rose 0.7% (5.3% y/y) in November, the eighth consecutive firm monthly gain. Revisions to the leading indexes for Japan and in North America substantially lowered [...]

Non-farm payrolls rose a weak 1,000 in December and gains in prior months were revised down.Consensus expectations were for a 150,000 December gain. Next month, the payroll figures will undergo an annual benchmark revision. The index [...]

Initial claims for jobless insurance rose a moderate 14,000 last week to 353,000 and reversed virtually all of the prior week's decline which was unrevised. Consensus expectations had been for claims of 350,000. The four-week moving [...]

The index of mortgage applications compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association last week recovered half of the prior week's 9.0% drop (-49.3% y/y). Purchase applications rose 2.9% w/w (+6.7% y/y) following two weeks of sharp decline. [...]