Economy in Brief: October 2017

Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 260,000 (+3.1% y/y) during the week ended September 30 from an unrevised 272,000 in the prior week. Expectations had been for 265,000 initial claims in the Action Economics Forecast [...]

The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services fell to $42.4 billion during August from $43.6 billion during July which was little revised. A $42.8 billion deficit had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Total exports [...]

The table chronicles the various composite manufacturing and services PMIs offered by Markit (we use Markit readings for the U.S. here except in the left chart). The EMU and U.S. readings are on a strong rise, but those gains may not [...]

The Composite Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Activity from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) rose to 59.8 during September from an unrevised 55.3 in August. It was the highest level since August 2005. The Action Economics [...]

The ADP/Moody's National Employment Report indicated that private nonfarm payrolls increased 135,000 (2.0% y/y) during September following a 228,000 August rise, revised from 237,000. ADP indicated that last month's weakness was due [...]

The market for new motor vehicles regained positive momentum last month as automakers aggressively cleared inventory in advance of the 2018 model selling season. Total sales of light vehicles jumped 15.0% during September (4.8% y/y) [...]

The EMU PPI is accelerating in August. But its 0.6% gain follows a 0.1% drop in July. The PPI continues to be volatile. Its trend is hard to nail down. And gyrating oil prices have great impact on the path of the PPI. The unrelenting [...]

Retail gasoline prices were little-changed last week at $2.57 per gallon (14.3% y/y) and remained down from the $2.69 high early last month. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal variation in gasoline pump [...]