Economy in Brief: March 2017

The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services widened during January to the largest level since March 2012. The increase to a $48.5 billion deficit from $44.3 billion in December was led by a broad-based 2.3% increase in imports; [...]

German orders plunged by 7.4% in January despite a series of very upbeat economic reports recently especially those featuring the use of diffusion indexes. As I have pointed out before, I do like diffusion indicators as they are [...]

PPI trends for the EMU show ongoing inflation acceleration as oil prices work their way through the system. Capital goods and consumer goods show a much more muted profile than intermediate goods where oil enters the picture more [...]

Manufacturing sector orders increased 1.2% (5.5% y/y) during January following an unrevised 1.3% December rise. Durable goods orders increased 2.0% (1.6% y/y). Transportation sector orders rebounded 6.2% (-4.2% y/y) with a two-thirds [...]

The Composite Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Activity from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) increased to 57.6 in February from 56.5 during January. February's reading continued as the highest level since October 2015. The [...]

European retail sales continue to struggle. While there has been optimism about Europe from its PMI data, retail sales simply tell a different story. The PMI data that Markit released today has filled out the European readings for [...]

Inflation in the EMU, in any of its largest four economies, overall inflation, core inflation, or in Germany, inflation excluding energy is accelerating. The 12-month pace exceeds the previous year's 12-month pace, the six-month pace [...]

Initial unemployment insurance claims declined to 223,000 during the week ended February 25 from 242,000 claims in the week prior, revised from 244,000. The latest level was the lowest since March 1973. Expectations had been for [...]