Economy in Brief: November 2015

Initial claims for unemployment insurance increased by 16,000 during the week ended October 31 to 276,000 (-3.1% y/y). The prior week's level of 260,000 was unrevised. The latest was the highest level of claims since the last week of [...]

German orders send ominous signals as they drop for the third consecutive month in September. Orders are not just falling; they are decelerating with successively larger annualized negative rates of growth from 12-month to six-month [...]

Nonfarm productivity during Q3'15 grew 1.6% at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (0.4% y/y) following a 3.5% rise in Q2, earlier reported as 3.3%. Zero change in Q3 productivity was expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. [...]

These foreign trade figures add to the preliminary numbers released one week ago by including trade in services and data by country. The U.S. foreign trade deficit in goods and services during September declined to $40.8 billion [...]

The PMI total indices add new observations on services to the revised manufacturing readings issued earlier this week. The new total private sector index is the result. We see a slight downward revision to the EMU overall gauge and to [...]

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Composite Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Business recovered to 59.1 during October after an unrevised September decline to 56.9. Consensus expectations had been for 56.5 in the Action [...]

The ADP/Moody's National Employment Report indicated that nonfarm private sector payrolls increased 182,000 during October after a 190,000 September rise, revised from 200,000. The latest was firmer than expectations for a 178,000 [...]

Total sales of light vehicles edged 0.4% higher during October to 18.24 million units (SAAR). The gain followed a total increase of 6.9% during the prior three months and left sales 10.0% higher than one year ago. Total unit sales [...]