Economy in Brief: 2016

The job openings rate improved to 3.7% during January from 3.6% in December. Revisions sharply lowered figures back to 2013, but benchmark revisions extend back to 2000. The private sector job openings rate of 4.0% compared to 2.1% in [...]

The Conference Board's Index of Leading Economic Indicators improved 0.1% during February (2.3% y/y), following declines during the prior two months. The improvement fell short of expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey [...]

Initial unemployment insurance claims increased to an expected 265,000 during the week ended March 12 from 258,000 in the prior week, revised from 259,000. The expectations figure is from the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The four [...]

The EMU trade balance shrank in January and stands a tick below its three-month average. Exports have fallen in January and are lower over three months and six months but higher by 1.2% over 12 months. Imports are lower in January, [...]

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve reported that its General Factory Sector Business Conditions Index improved during March to 12.4 from an unrevised -2.8 in February. It was the first reading above break-even since August and the [...]

At today's meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed funds rate was left unchanged in the range of 0.25% - 0.50%. The Fed again emphasized that "global economic and financial developments continue to pose risks." It also [...]

Industrial output declined 0.5% (-1.0% y/y) last month following a 0.8% increase during January, revised from 0.9%. A 0.3% decline had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The decline in oil prices pulled down output [...]

European car registrations rose by 9.1% in February and by 14.4% year-over-year marking another month of strong gains. The propensity for countries to post persistent gains in registrations has been rising as not only the strength of [...]