Economy in Brief: May 2015

Gasoline prices increased 9 cents last week to an average $2.66 per gallon at the pump, the highest level since early-December and up nearly one-third versus the late-January low of $2.04. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting [...]

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Composite Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Business improved to 57.8 during April from an unrevised 56.5 in March. The latest figure was the highest since November and exceeded expectations [...]

The U.S. foreign trade deficit in goods and services increased during March to $51.4 billion from $35.9 billion in February, revised from $35.4 billion. A deficit of $41.0 billion had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast [...]

The component year-over-year trends do not show much evidence of a shift in the PPI trend. But in the table it is clear from the monthly data that the period of price declines is coming to an end. This is certainly true unless oil [...]

New orders in the manufacturing sector jumped an expected 2.1% (-4.0% y/y) during March following a 0.1% downtick in February, revised from 0.2%. The gain was driven by jumps in civilian & military aircraft orders. Durable goods [...]

The story of the EMU PMIs this month is a bit convoluted. Germany and the EMU had upward revisions to their weak flash estimates, but the two gauges each still declined in April. At a diffusion reading of 52, the EMU gauge is actually [...]

Sales of light vehicles declined 4.0% (+2.5% y/y) during April to 16.45 million units (AR) versus 17.15 million in March. The latest level remained in the range staked out since the middle of last year. Auto sales decreased 4.4% last [...]

Momentum in the building sector has weakened significantly. The value of construction put-in-place slipped 0.6% during March following no change in February, revised from -0.1%. Year-to-year growth of 2.0% follows gains of roughly [...]