Economy in Brief

New data but not much change The main story about the EMU PMIs this month is still plain vanilla. The message is that PMI readings are still strong in the EMU. The overall gauge did weaken on a softer manufacturing sector as the [...]

Sales of existing homes declined 1.8% (+0.7% y/y) during June to 5.520 million units (AR) from an unrevised 5.620 million in May. It was the lowest level of sales since February. Expectations were for 5.580 million sales in the Action [...]

Unemployment at a 10-year low of 4.5% reflected 1.4% y/y growth in employment and a dampened 0.8% gain in the size of the labor pool. Amongst the states, unemployment continued to be widely divergent. Two states held above the 6.0% [...]

The chart and table present data in slightly different formats. Nonetheless, they come to the same conclusion that Canada's retail sector is on very solid ground. This is something that most G7 countries cannot say. U.S., EMU and [...]

The Conference Board's Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators increased 0.6% (4.0% y/y) during June following a 0.2% May gain, revised from 0.3%. It was the strongest increase since January. A 0.3% rise had been expected in [...]

In late 2015, Japan shook off a string of deficits on its trade account and began to post surpluses. The surpluses rose into 2016, but since then they have been unable to build momentum. Aside from one large surplus posted early this [...]

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve reported that its General Factory Sector Business Conditions Index fell to 19.5 during July and added to its June decline to 27.6. It was the lowest reading since November. The figure compared to [...]

Initial claims for jobless insurance claims fell to 233,000 (-4.4%) during the week ended July 15 from 248,000 in the prior week, revised from 247,000. Expectations called for 245,000 claims in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. It [...]