Economy in Brief: July 2014

The National Federation of Independent Business reported that its Small Business Optimism Index slipped to 95.0 during June after improvement to 96.6 in May. The latest level remained near its highest since September 2007, just before [...]

The overall civilian unemployment rate fell sharply to 6.1% in June, down from the high of 9.6% reached during all of 2010. Improvement extends across all age brackets, though the young continue to realize relatively high rates of [...]

German industrial production in May fell for the third month in a row. The trends for overall industrial production are now showing a steady decline from 1.2% over 12 months, to -3.3% over six months, to -10.9% over three months. The [...]

The US merchandise trade deficit contracted to $44.4 billion in May from $47 billion in April. On the month, exports rose by 1% as imports fell by 0.3%, providing the impetus for the trade balance contraction. Merchandise exports grew [...]

The market diffusion indicators for the euro area show backing off of the composite index in June. The composite index fell to 52.8 in June from 53.5 in May while May itself reflected a deterioration from April's level of 54.0. It's [...]

Initial unemployment insurance claims rose to 315,000 during the week ended June 28 from 313,000 in the prior week, revised from 312,000. The latest claims level matched expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey and [...]

The Composite Index for the service and construction sectors from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) edged lower to 56.0 in June but remained near its highest level in ten months. The latest figure matched expectations in the [...]

The labor market is on a firmer footing. Nonfarm payrolls increased 288,000 during June following upwardly-revised gains of 224,000 and 304,000 during the prior two months. The increase easily outpaced expectations for a 215,000 rise [...]