Economy in Brief: May 2017

Initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped back to 238,000 during the week ended April 29 from 257,000 in the prior week, which was unrevised. Expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey had called for 246,000 claims. [...]

Euro area retail sales were soft again in March. Nonfood sales are up by 0.2% and up at a 2% annualized pace over three months, at a 0.4% pace over six months and at a 1.7% pace over 12 months. For an economic area sporting its best [...]

The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services of $43.7 billion during March compared to $43.8 billion in February, initially reported as $43.6 billion. Expectations had been for a $44.7 billion deficit in the Action Economics Forecast [...]

At today's meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the targeted federal-funds rate was left unchanged in a range of 0.75% to 1.00%. The targeted range has been raised three times since the low of 0.12% in place from late-2008 [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Applications Volume Index eased 0.1% last week (-16.9% y/y) in the week of April 28, after a 2.7% rise in the preceding week. Refinancing applications declined 4.7% and [...]

GDP reports for Q1 are starting to roll in. In the EMU, the year-on-year pace is 1.7% with Q1's annualized quarterly pace at 1.8%. EMU Q1 growth exceeds growth in the U.S., but the U.S. still has faster growth than Europe over four [...]

The Composite Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Activity from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) rebounded to 57.5 during April, and recovered most of the March decline to an unrevised 55.2. The Action Economics Forecast Survey [...]

The ADP/Moody's National Employment Report indicated that private nonfarm payrolls increased 177,000 during April following a 255,000 March rise, revised from 263,000. A 185,000 increase had been expected in the Action Economics [...]