Economy in Brief: 2011

Last month, the Composite Index of activity in the factory sector from the Institute for Supply Management increased to 61.4 from an unrevised 60.8 in January. The figure beat consensus expectations for a reading of 60.6. The latest [...]

Strength in energy prices continues unabated. The pump price for regular gasoline last week surged nineteen cents to $3.38 per gallon, the highest since October-2008 and double the December-2008 low of $1.61. Typically, pump prices [...]

Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) issued a number press releases today, detailing Japan's Industrial Production, Industry Shipments and Inventories, and Retail Trade. And Markit Economics released its purchasing [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that January pending sales of existing single-family homes fell 2.8% after a 3.2% December decline, which last month was reported as a 2.0% increase. Sales fell hard in most regions [...]

Personal income rose an improved 1.0% last month, more-than-double expectations. However, the improvement was limited to a 2.1% spike in rental income, up 10.6% y/y. Elsewhere, income growth continued moderate. The December gain in [...]

The National Association for Business Economics indicated an upward revision to its latest growth forecast. For this year, real GDP growth should average 3.3%, versus 2.6% expected three months ago. For next year, growth is expected [...]

It was expected that GDP would be an upward revision and not a downward revision. There were some hopes that UK GDP would eliminate the decline in Q4 that was viewed as 'pre-mature.' Instead UK GDP has fallen by more in Q4 than had [...]

Consumers' spirits improved markedly during the last two weeks. The full-month February reading of consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan rose to 77.5 and easily beat expectations for 75.3. The reading also was improved [...]