Economy in Brief: February 2015

The EMU total PMI showed an advance for January but still in the context of sequential declines from its 12-month to 6-month to 3-month averages. Sequential decline also applies to the two EMU components for services and manufacturing [...]

The ADP/Moody's National Employment Report indicated that nonfarm private sector payrolls increased 213,000 last month (2.3% y/y) following a 253,000 December rise, revised from 241,000, and a 274,000 increase in November, earlier [...]

Sales of light vehicles declined 1.5% during January to 16.66 million (AR) from 16.92 million in December. Despite a solid 8.9% y/y increase, sales have trended sideways since last summer. Light truck sales have shown strength with [...]

During all of last year, new orders to manufacturers rose a steady 2.8%. During December, however, forward momentum lost steam. New orders fell 3.4% (-3.6% y/y) following a revised 1.7% November decline, last month reported as -0.7%. [...]

Denial is not a viable option with which to fight deflation. I'm not saying that the euro area has a deflation problem, but of the 60 evaluations at the country level for monthly and sequential growth rates, only SIX are positive [...]

The Institute for Supply Management reported that, for New York State, their January index of business conditions expected in six months declined to 66.9, the lowest level in nine months. In addition, the reading for current economic [...]

The seven-month freefall in energy prices took a breather last week. Average gasoline prices moved up 3 cents in the week ended February 2 to $2.07 per gallon, reversing the prior week's decline. Prices peaked at $3.70 per gallon this [...]

The value of construction put-in-place increased 6.1% last year following a 5.7% rise in 2013. The rise was led by an improved 11.0% increase in nonresidential building activity followed by an easier 5.1% gain in residential building. [...]