Economy in Brief: September 2017

The Composite Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Activity from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) rose to 55.3 during August from 53.9 in July. It remained near the lowest index level since August of last year. The Action [...]

The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services of $43.7 billion during July changed little from $43.5 billion during June, revised from $43.6 billion. A $44.6 billion deficit had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. [...]

Germany's orders fell 0.7% m/m in July after a strong gain in each of the previous two months. The decline in orders was not anticipated because by all accounts German manufacturing has been doing pretty well. The PMI gauge, the ZEW [...]

Manufacturing sector orders declined 3.3% during July (+5.4% y/y) following a 3.2% June gain, revised from 3.0%. Durable goods orders reversed June's increase with a 6.8% drop (+4.4% y/y). Transportation sector orders were off 19.2% [...]

The service sector PMIs for the largest EU and EMU members took a step back in August everywhere but in Germany. But unlike many measures where Germany is the exception, and is so because it is so much stronger than the rest of [...]

The market for new motor vehicles has deteriorated markedly this year. Total sales of light vehicles declined 3.7% during August (-6.3% y/y) to 16.14 million units (SAAR) from 16.77 million in July, according to the Autodata [...]

Construction spending fell 0.6% in July with private spending falling 0.4% and public spending dropping 1.4%. Within the private sector, residential spending continued to expand, gaining 0.8% in the month while nonresidential spending [...]

The job market weakened noticeably last month. Nonfarm payrolls increased 156,000 (1.5% y/y) during August following a 189,000 July increase and a 210,000 June gain. Together these two figures were revised down by 41,000. A 183,000 [...]