Economy in Brief: 2012

Last week the pump price for a gallon of regular gasoline declined five cents (+3.2%) to $3.39 per gallon. Since their September peak, prices have fallen forty nine cents per gallon. The norm for this time of year of less driving is [...]

Car buyers were out in force last month. Unit sales of light motor vehicles during November jumped 8.7% m/m (14.7% y/y) to 15.54M (SAAR) according to the Autodata Corporation. The latest figure surpassed the Consensus estimate for [...]

The value of construction put-in-place jumped 1.4% during October after a 0.5% September gain. The latest increase easily beat expectations for a 0.4% rise and caps off seven months totaling 6.6% growth. Private sector spending surged [...]

Purchasing managers in manufacturing outside the U.S. were relatively optimistic in November. There were more upgrades than downgrades in the diffusion indexes that measure the opinions of the purchasing managers as evidenced in the [...]

The Institute for Supply Management reported that its composite index of manufacturing activity fell to 49.5 in November from an unrevised 51.7 in October. The latest level was the lowest since July 2009 and it was well short of [...]

As of October the EU area unemployment rate has continued to move steadily higher. Among the key reporting EMU economies only Germany and Ireland have persistently declining rates of unemployment. Ireland's drop is from very elevated [...]

The Institute for Supply Management reported that its composite index of manufacturing activity fell to 49.5 in November from an unrevised 51.7 in October. The latest level was the lowest since July 2009 and it was well short of [...]

The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago reported that its Business Barometer improved this month to 50.4, its highest level in three months. Haver Analytics constructs a seasonally adjusted figure comparable to the ISM Composite [...]