Economy in Brief: February 2012

The downtrend in jobless insurance claims remains intact. That was indicated by another decline in initial claims for unemployment insurance. Last week they fell to 367,000 from 379,000 (revised from 377,000). Claims averaged 376,000 [...]

Sales of light motor vehicles began the year on a strong note. Unit sales of light vehicles rose to 14.19M (AR) last month, up 11.7% from one year earlier. That selling rate was up from 13.56M during December and was the highest since [...]

Job growth is continuing at a moderate pace. Private nonfarm payrolls rose 170,000 last month after a 292,000 December increase which was revised down from 325,000 reported last month. The figures come from

The level of construction spending logged another increase. Activity during December increased 1.5% after a 0.4% November gain, initially reported as 1.2%. Consensus expectations were for a 0.7% December rise. These m/m machinations [...]

Factory sector activity is improving but it's hardly robust. The Composite Index of factory sector activity from the Institute For Supply Management rose to 54.1 from a revised 53.1 in December. The latest reading roughly matched [...]

The EMU PMI rose by the better part of two points in January marking its second straight advance even though it continues to show overall industrial contraction for the sixth month in a row. Germany’s index is now showing a sector [...]

Job growth is continuing at a moderate pace. Private nonfarm payrolls rose 170,000 last month after a 292,000 December increase which was revised down from 325,000 reported last month. The figures come from the payroll processor [...]

Job growth is continuing at a moderate pace. Private nonfarm payrolls rose 170,000 last month after a 292,000 December increase which was revised down from 325,000 reported last month. The figures come from