Economy in Brief: January 2016

Records were meant to be broken, and total sales of light vehicles in 2015 did just that. Rising to 17.42 million units, they just beat the old record of 17.40 million reached in 2000, as gasoline prices and interest rates fell. The [...]

For all of 2015, the pump price for a gallon of regular gasoline averaged $2.03 according to the U.S. Department of Energy, the lowest level since 2008. Prices have fallen 45% since late-April of 2004. As of last week, pump prices [...]

The value of construction put-in-place declined 0.4% (+9.7% y/y) during November following a 0.3% October rise, revised from 1.0%. Three-month growth of 0.2% (AR) compared to 29.2% during Q2. A 0.5% rise in November had been expected [...]

Activity in the manufacturing sector fell to the weakest level since June 2009. The ISM Composite Index of factory sector activity fell to 48.2 during December from an unrevised 48.6 in November. The reading disappointed expectations [...]