Economy in Brief: April 2013

Drivers are finally realizing some relief when filling up. The pump price for a gallon of regular gasoline fell by 3 cents last week to $3.65 per gallon (-7.5% y/y), continuing the modest decline from the late-February high of $3.78. [...]

Building activity improved in February. An expected 1.2% rise (7.9% y/y) in construction put in place followed a little-revised 2.1% January decline. December figures, however, were lowered sharply. Improvement in building activity [...]

Recent improvement in the factory sector stalled last month. The March composite index of manufacturing activity from the Institute for Supply Management fell to 51.3 from an unrevised 54.2 in February. The decline reversed most of [...]

Japan's Tankan reading in 2013Q1 for manufacturers rose to -8 from -12 in Q4. This was just short of expectations that a -7 reading would emerge. Non-MFG improved to +6 from +4. The readings are still weak. The MFG survey stands at [...]

The University of Michigan's Index of Consumer Sentiment for March improved for the full month to 78.6 (3.1% y/y) from its mid-month reading of 71.8. The figure was up versus 77.6 in February and compared to the consensus forecast for [...]