Economy in Brief: July 2015

The U.S. foreign trade deficit in goods and services during May grew to $41.9 billion from $40.7 billion in April, revised from $40.9 billion. A deficit of $42.0 billion had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. In [...]

The job openings rate during May held steady at 3.6% as April's rate was revised lower from 3.7%. Both remained improved from the recession low of 1.6%. The latest was just below the series' high of 3.8% in January 2001. The job [...]

The U.S. foreign trade deficit in goods and services during May grew to $41.9 billion from $40.7 billion in April, revised from $40.9 billion. A deficit of $42.0 billion had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. In [...]

Germany's industrial production was flat in May, but it still carries momentum from the gains in earlier months. Still, the sequential growth rates show deceleration in overall output mostly due to decelerating output of intermediate [...]

Consumers have a strong interest in buying new vehicles these days, even though sales softened a bit in June. During the second quarter, sales rose to 17.15 million (AR), the highest level since Q3 2005. During June, however, sales of [...]

The Labor Market Conditions Index from the Federal Reserve Board includes 19 indicators of labor market activity, covering the broad categories of unemployment and underemployment. These include jobs, workweeks, wages, vacancies, [...]

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Composite Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Business during June matched expectations and improved slightly to 56.0 from 55.7 in May. Nevertheless, the latest figure remained nearly the lowest [...]

The euro area, perhaps also to be known as the land of bifurcation, has just witnessed a vote in which the Greek people have rejected the EU austerity plan, leaving much of the future for Greece and the euro area itself in limbo. The [...]