Haver’s data services are provided through the DLX platform; delivering tools for data management, visualization, modeling and publishing. DLX is designed to increase productivity and integrates with Excel, PowerPoint, and major statistical software packages; MatLab, R, Python, SAS, E-views and Stata. DLX component application DLXVG3 offers precision graphics, publishing, analytic tools, and easy navigation for all Haver databases.

icon-chart.png

Chart and compare multiple data series with accompanying data table of values

Advanced functions (growth rates, moving averages, aggregation, seasonal adjustment)

Analytical tools (cycle charts, scatterplots, trend lines, and recession shading)

Complete graph customization (axis scaling, sizing, formatting, styles)

Excel and PowerPoint direct export and complete integration (dynamic spreadsheets and presentations update on a click)

DLXVG3

icon-db.png

DLX Add-ins for all versions of Excel provide instant data updates of entire workbooks

Use DLXVG3 to locate data series codes from within any file, easily creating new spreadsheets for analysis

Edit date ranges, archive data, apply functions

Excel Spreadsheet Add-ins

icon-time.png

Haver offers timely, accurate, and professionally supported data via an update service, meeting the strictest demands of the institutional research community

AutoUpdate provides fast and reliable data updates within seconds of source releases

Timer service runs continuously on an hourly basis when DLX is running

Manual updates offer clients the independence to update data retrievals on any desired schedule

All database updates retrieve only the data series that have changed and send only the data points that have been updated; including revisions

Timely Updates

DLX software tools to convert data into many different formats needed for diverse analytical frameworks

Haver supports a DLX API permitting clients to leverage and build processes with DLX data

Database Compatibility

products-dlx.svg

Data Link Express

Platform Independent site delivering DLX Databases across any workstation or device.

products-haverview.svg

HaverView

[Matlab](http://matlab.com) by The MathWorks lets you access, visualize, and analyze historic time-series data to identify patterns or uncover complex relationships. From within a single environment you can:

- Access data from multiple sources including files, spreadsheets, databases, data providers, and the Web
- Store data in financial time-series objects to simplify data management, data transformation, missing-data handling, and date-math calculations
- Perform technical analysis with moving averages, oscillators, stochastics, and indices
- Create custom analysis routines and visualizations or animations to capture, present, and share your analysis processes and discoveries
- Customize your analysis environment with advanced functionality from signal processing, statistics, or econometrics

products-matlab.svg

MATLAB

[Stata Data Analysis and Statistical Software](https://www.stata.com) by StataCorp LP is an integrated statistical package designed for researchers of all disciplines. It provides the ability to do data analysis, data management and graphics and has features such as multiple imputation, factor variables, GMM, competing-risks regression, state-space modeling, predictive margins, and more.

products-stata.svg

Stata

[SAS](https://www.sas.com) provides an integrated environment for predictive and descriptive modeling, data mining, text analytics, forecasting, optimization, simulation, experimental design and more. From predictive analytics to model deployment and process optimization, SAS provides a range of techniques and processes for the collection, classification, analysis and interpretation of data to reveal patterns, anomalies, key variables and relationships, leading ultimately to new insights and better answers faster.

[SASEHAVR](http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/etsug/67525/HTML/default/viewer.htm#etsug_sasehavr_gettingstarted01.htm) is a seamless interface between Haver and SAS data processing that enables SAS users to read economic and financial time series data that reside in a Haver Analytics DLX (Data Link Express) database. [SASEHAVR](http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/etsug/67525/HTML/default/viewer.htm#etsug_sasehavr_gettingstarted01.htm) requires both SAS/ETS and Base SAS Software.

products-sas.svg

[RATS (Regression Analysis of Time Series) Econometric Software](https://estima.com) by Estima is a leading econometrics and time-series analysis software package. It provides ability to do linear and non-linear least squares, forecasting, SUR and ARIMA models and in addition, supports advanced techniques such as GMM, ARCH and GARCH models, state space models, and more.

products-rats.svg

RATS

Session 1: Bootcamp Part 1

Visualization with GGPlot2 and data analysis

Session 2: Bootcamp Part 2

Session 3: Univariate Models Part 1

Session 4: Univariate Models Part 2

Session 5: Vector Autoregressions

Session 6: Cointegration and error-correction models

A popular open source option for statistical computing and graphics that is available on many UNIX platforms, Windows and MacOS

Estimating, evaluating, and forecasting ARIMA models

Understanding the concept of non-stationarity and testing for unit roots

Estimating autoregressions, granger causality tests, and impulse response functions

Understanding the concept of cointegration and testing using the Enger-Granger test

Estimating and forecasting with vector error correction models

products-r.svg

Teaches econometrics and forecasting at the University of Colorado Denver. He has over 15 years of econometric experience in both the private and public sector.

Daniel L. Jerrett, Ph.D.

Abdel M. Zellou, Ph.D.

Bootcamp and Econometric Tools 1 & 2

Econometrics Training: Applied Time Series in R

Session 5: Multivariate Models Part 1

Session 6: Multivariate Models Part 2

Haver partners with SmartMacro Labs to offer a two week immersive online course introducing participants to the power of the Python programming language. This applied hands-on training develops statistical economics skills with a concentration on economics and finance.

Gain proficiency in building modern time-series models in Python through real-world applications. Designed for professionals in both the public and private sector, the course does not require prior experience, assuming only that participants have a basic understanding of regression and statistical concepts.

Proficiency working in Jupyter notebooks and the Python environment

products-python.svg

Remote Training: Applied Time Series in Python

Sharp drop in China demand for oil helping to limit impact of Middle East conflict on the price

Robert Brusca

260811E.jpg

Inflation in the Netherlands picked up in July compared to June. Both the June HICP and the domestic inflation index had shown declines. In July, the HICP posted an increase of 0.7% month-to-month while the domestic CPI gained 0.5%, both easily showing accelerations compared to June. Monthly inflation rates increased in July the same or greater than previously in May.

Sequentially inflation is not exactly busting out; however, the legacy of inflation is still a bitter pill for the ECB to try to swallow even for this small European economy. The total HICP is up at a 2.9% annual rate over 12 months; that rises to a 4% annual rate over six months and settles back down to 2.1% over three months. That deflation is mostly on the strength of the weak showing in June. The domestic inflation rate rises 3.1% over 12 months; it accelerates to 4.3% annualized over six months and then only backs down to 2.8% at an annual rate over three months, largely on the back of the decline posted in June.

The domestic components show inflation accelerating in all but three categories in July; eight of thirteen showed declines in June. Only two categories showed declines in May.

Sequentially, looking at the percentage changes from 12 months to six months to three months, the components are showing mixed results. However, for food and for alcoholic beverages & tobacco, inflation steadily decelerates from 12 months to six months to three months. Only recreation & culture show inflation accelerating over 12 months, six months and three months. However, if we look at inflation trends over three months compared to six months, and six months compared to 12 months, acceleration is present for housing & utilities, for healthcare, for recreation & culture, and for personal care & miscellaneous categories. The not-named categories have more complex patterns, not necessarily good or bad, just complex. The line on the table for diffusion shows us that over 12 months inflation is accelerating in 38.5% of the categories compared to what it had done a year ago. However, over six months, the category inflation rates are higher compared to 12 months in 61.5% of the categories. Over three months compared to six months, inflation is higher in 46% of the categories. By these diffusion calculations, inflation is accelerating over six months compared to 12 months but otherwise it is decelerating over three months and over 12 months.

As an overview, the 2.1% inflation rate for the HICP over three months looks excellent; however, in context, it's result of three months, two of which were terrible, one of which was excellent, and so that's not much to go on. The HICP progressive inflation rates other than three months are all too high at 4% and 2.9%; for the domestic CPI, the same statements are true, except that the three-month rate at 2.8% is even worse than for the HICP over three months. The inflation diffusion statistics by themselves are not bad over three months, showing inflation accelerating in only 46.2% of the categories. That's a pretty good result and inflation accelerating over 12 months in only 38.5% of the categories. But the six-month pace is too high, and the question is where the three-month number is going to settle in once we move down the road; the good June inflation statistic beginning to fade and drop out is another issue. June increasing is looking like an outlier.

So that's a significant question on the outlook for inflation, and it's basically a question that we ask for every country because we had that break because of the hopeful situation that had arisen around the Strait of Hormuz and the prospect of oil prices going back down. Now that prospect appears to have passed and we're not quite sure where we stand. That puts the outlook and all the trends in a danger zone.

260811.jpg

Netherlands

Dutch Inflation Picks Up

Sandy Batten

260807A5.jpg

260807B5.jpg

For the second consecutive month, the employment report disappointed. Nonfarm payrolls fell 23,000 in July with significant downward revisions to both May and June, according to today’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected an increase of 85,000. The 129,000 increase previously reported for May was revised down to 63,000 while the much lower-than-expected 57,000 increase previously reported for June was revised down to 20,000. The average gain over the past three months fell to 20,000 from 77,000 in June while the average increase over the past six months declined to 44,330 from 74,830 in June. Both remain stronger than in the second half of last year but in the past two months have slowed from the pace exhibited in the spring.

In contrast to the headline figure, private-sector payrolls posted a 30,000 increase in July. However, this was still much lower than the expected 79,000 increase, and there were also significant, though smaller than for the headline figure, downward revisions to both May and June (totaling 55,000). Government employment fell 53,000 in July, almost completely accounted for by a surprising 49,600 decline in local government education jobs.

The weaker-than-expected payroll report was once again reinforced by a weak report from the **household survey** for July. While the number of unemployed fell 178,000, the third consecutive monthly decline, and the unemployment rate unexpectedly edged down to 4.1% from 4.2% in June, the number of employed fell 87,000, the fifth monthly decline in the past six months, on top of a 507,000 plunge in June. The labor force continued its sharp fall, declining 264,000 in July following a 720,000 drop in June. The labor force participation rate decreased to 61.4%, its lowest reading since February 2021.

On a slightly brighter note, wage growth was well behaved. Private sector average hourly earnings, a key variable for the Federal Reserve, edged up a less-than-expected 0.1% m/m in July, the smallest monthly gain since last December. The 3.2% increase from a year ago was the lowest May 2021. Action Economics Forecast Survey looked for a 0.3% m/m rise. Wages in private service-producing firms were unchanged and advanced just 2.9% from a year ago, the slowest pace of advance since May 2021. Goods-producing wages rose 0.3% m/m (4.1% y/y) in July, up slightly from a 0.2% monthly increase in June.

260807C5.jpg

260807D5.jpg

In the **establishment survey**, goods-producing jobs increased a solid 25,000 in July, the largest monthly advance since March, led by a 22,000 rise in construction jobs. Manufacturing jobs rose 5,000 in July, the second consecutive monthly gain. Private-sector service-producing jobs rose only 5,000 in July, the weakest performance since a 127,000 decline in February. Job performance varied significantly across sectors. Surprisingly, leisure and hospitality was the weakest sector with jobs declining 40,000 in July on top of a 43,000 decline in June. There were expectations that the World Cup would generate additional leisure and hospitality jobs, but this obviously has failed to pan out. Retail trade jobs fell 19,400 following a 3,700 decline in June. Financial activities jobs declined 14,000, the fifth consecutive monthly decline. By contrast, private education and healthcare jobs increased 25,000 in Jul, though this was well below the 60,000 monthly increase averaged over the previous four months. Professional and business services jobs rose 18,000, and information jobs gained 11,000, the first monthly increase in four months.

The breadth of private job growth narrowed in July from June with the one-month diffusion index falling to 51.8 from 53.2, though still above the key 50 level that indicates that more industries were adding jobs than losing them. Moreover, the six-month diffusion index rose to 55.0 in July, its highest reading since January 2024.

The length of the workweek was unchanged at 34.3 hours in July, where it has been for the past four months. The aggregate weekly hours index was also unchanged in July as it had been in June. The goods-producing workweek edged up to 40.2 hours in July, the highest since January 2023, from 40.1 in June. The private service-producing workweek was unchanged at 33.2 hours in July.

The employment and earnings data are collected from surveys taken each month during the week containing the 12th day of the month. The labor market data are contained in Haver's **USECON** database. Detailed figures are in the **EMPL** and **LABOR** databases. The expectations figures are in the **AS1REPNA** database.

260807X5.jpg

260807F5.jpg

- U.S. nonfarm payrolls unexpectedly fell 23,000 in July with meaningful downward revisions to both May and June.
- The market consensus looked for an 85,000 increase.
- The unemployment rate edged down to 4.1%, its lowest since June 2025, from 4.2%, due mostly to another significant decline in the labor force.
- Average hourly earnings edged up 0.1% m/m (3.2% y/y), meaningfully lower than expectations.

U.S. Payroll Employment Unexpectedly Declined in July

260807E.jpg

German industrial production rose by 0.2% in June, continuing a string of increases. Production in Germany is on an accelerating path. It is unchanged over 12 months, but it has a 0.9% annual rate increase over six months and a 4.5% annual rate increase over three months, a clear acceleration in the rates of growth over the shorter periods.

That trend is accentuated by consumer goods that grow 2.3% over 12 months; output then steps up to a 3% annual rate over six months and advances to 18.9% at an annual rate over three months. Capital goods and intermediate goods interrupt the pattern to some extent. For capital goods, output falls 2.5% over 12 months, then weakens further, falling by 4.2% annually over six months, but it rebounds to grow at a 0.8% annual rate over three months. That's not an accelerating pattern, but there is a recovery over three months. Intermediate goods show a 0.1% increase in output over 12 months, rising to 1.7% annually over six months but then stepping back to a 1% growth rate over three months.

Manufacturing alone also shows accelerating growth as growth rates improve from 12 months to six months to three months. Real manufacturing orders have a convoluted growth rate, with positive growth over 12 months, a decline over six months, and then a small recovery over three months. The pace of real sales, as we saw in yesterday's durable goods orders and sales report, is on a shrinking path.

Industrial surveys generally show sequential deterioration for the sector from the ZEW and the IFO. The exception is the EU Commission industrial index that shows some slight improvement sequentially.

Industrial production results are presented for five other European countries that have issued IP data as of June. These data show acceleration sequentially in Spain, Sweden, and Norway. France and Portugal have complex patterns that end with negative three-month growth rates.

On balance, Germany shows some hopeful trends, with some rebound being led to some extent by the consumer sector. The survey data on industry are not encouraging. Although the picture for the rest of Europe shows some tendency for acceleration, there’s still a good deal of lingering weakness.

260807.jpg

Germany

German Industrial Output Gathers Strength

Andrew Cates

**A world economy that refuses to buckle**
For all the anxiety in the headlines, the world economy has kept its footing. The gauge in question is the Global Economic Conditions Indicator of Baumeister, Korobilis and Lee, a composite distilled each month from sixteen separate series that among them span the breadth of the global economy: industrial production and leading indicators, consumer confidence and expectations, commodity and energy prices, financial conditions and the dollar, shipping and transport, geopolitical risk, and even the weather, by way of measures of El Niño and energy-related temperatures. Expressed relative to normal trend growth, it fell close to a full percentage point below par during the disruption of 2022. It has since climbed back above zero, leaving global activity running, if anything, a shade faster than its long-run trend.

260806Z1.jpg

**Higher interest rate expectations**
That resilience has had a consequence for interest rates, and not the one markets spent much of the past year anticipating. Rather than the cuts once taken for granted, Blue Chip forecasters have been quietly raising their expectations for where policy rates will sit twelve months hence — and doing so almost everywhere at once, across the United States, the euro area, Japan and Australia alike. The breadth of the revision is what gives it weight. A change confined to a single economy might be put down to a local quirk of politics or the cycle; a shift that spans most of the advanced world at the same moment is far harder to dismiss. It has the look of a collective reassessment of how far, and how fast, rates can now fall — the same conclusion the neutral-rate estimates in the next chart reach by a longer road.

260806Z2.jpg

**A higher resting place**
The reassessment reaches well beyond the coming year. The neutral rate — the real rate that neither stimulates nor restrains an economy running at capacity, and thus the level rates settle at once the cycle has passed — has risen as well. Estimates for eleven advanced economies now put it higher than in 2019 in every economy; Japan's is still below zero but a full point higher than it was, and New Zealand's is above three per cent. This arguably matters more than a rise in current rates. A high policy rate today can be written off as cyclical, to be reversed at the first downturn; a higher resting rate cannot. On these estimates the very low rates of the past decade were not the normal order of things but a phase that is probably now ending, which makes the widespread assumption that rates will eventually drift back to them increasingly hard to defend.

260806Z3.jpg

**Fiscal appetite meets the demand for capital**
Why has the anchor moved? The US Fed’s decomposition points, above all, to governments. The largest single force lifting neutral rates across the advanced world has been the swelling supply of government debt: as safe assets multiply, they can be absorbed only at a higher yield, with a fading premium for their safety adding to the effect. Ranged against that, an ageing population's appetite for safe saving and the slow retreat of the global savings glut have pulled the other way, though not by enough to offset it. What gives the fiscal story its bite is the company it now keeps on the demand side. Wide deficits are competing for savings with an investment cycle that has plainly turned — in artificial intelligence, in defence, in the reshoring of supply chains — and a rising demand for capital meeting a supply that no longer grows freely is the very definition of a more expensive real rate.

260806Z4.jpg

**A boom financed (so far) from profits, not debt**
The character of that investment matters as much as its scale, and there is some reassurance. Set the proportion of American banks tightening their lending standards, drawn from the Federal Reserve's quarterly Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey, against the financial balance of the private sector as a whole, and a comforting picture emerges. Banks turned cautious through the recent cycle, tightening credit conditions appreciably, and yet the private sector has gone on running a healthy surplus, its spending funded in aggregate out of income rather than a build-up of debt. This week's survey, covering the second quarter, suggests that even the credit squeeze is now fading. Banks reported that standards on business loans were little changed over the quarter, while demand for those loans strengthened — a pick-up they attributed, tellingly, to their customers' higher spending on plant and equipment. The distinction between profits and borrowing remains a crucial one. An investment upturn paid for largely from profits is far sturdier than one built on leverage, and far less exposed to the higher cost of borrowing described in the earlier charts; and where firms are now turning to the banks, they appear to be doing so to finance new capacity rather than to plug a hole. It also lends some perspective to the recent jitters over artificial-intelligence spending: for all the noise, the economy-wide accounts show little sign, as yet, of the over-extension that turned earlier booms to bust.

260806Z5.jpg

**Where the boom meets its limits**
The financial foundations look solid; the physical ones are more of a challenge. Copper is the clearest example. An economy cannot electrify, expand its power grid, build data centres or rearm without a great deal of it, and the real price of copper now sits close to its highest in decades. The reason is a straightforward imbalance: demand is rising quickly, while a new mine takes the best part of a decade to come on stream, so supply struggles to keep pace. The strains are not confined to metals. Tensions in the Middle East over the summer have kept markets wary about the security of energy supply, a reminder that the constraints on a fast-investing economy are now as much a matter of geopolitics as of finance.

260806Z6.jpg

The global economy has proved stubbornly resilient this summer, even as the backdrop has grown noisier. A fresh flare-up in the Middle East, reports of official intervention to arrest a slide in the yen, and a bout of nerves over the vast sums now being committed to artificial intelligence have all unsettled sentiment, while central banks — the Federal Reserve among them — have turned markedly more hesitant about cutting rates than they appeared only a few months ago. Yet the incoming data have held up better than feared, with a broad gauge of global activity climbing back above its normal trend and shrugging off the gloom (chart 1). If anything, the pressure on interest rates has been upward rather than down. Forecasters have spent recent months marking up their expectations for policy rates a year ahead across almost every major economy (chart 2), and the shift looks more than cyclical: estimates of the neutral rate, the resting point for real rates, now stand higher than they did in 2019 in every advanced economy (chart 3), lifted above all by the swelling supply of government debt (chart 4). Behind that repricing lies an investment cycle that is quietly gathering pace and, encouragingly, one still financed largely out of profits rather than borrowing (chart 5). It is not without its constraints, however. The real price of copper, the indispensable metal of electrification, sits close to a multi-decade high — a reminder that a capital-hungry world is beginning to strain against physical limits (chart 6).

<iframe data-testid="embed-iframe" style="border-radius:12px" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/0Zt7Di0z9PXCtH3h3ibLd6?utm_source=generator&si=be24fd3c45b3421c" width="100%" height="152" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" loading="lazy"></iframe>

Charts of the Week: A Resilient World Economy, and Its Price

Michael J. Moran

260806A.jpg

260806B.jpg

Productivity in the nonfarm business sector rose 1.4% in the second quarter, better than the expected increase of 0.7% but trailing average gains of more than 2.0% in both 2024 and 2025. Results in the prior two quarters also were below 2.0%. In all of the past three quarters, the easing in productivity growth reflected slow advances in output: 1.7% in Q2 and an average of 1.4% in the prior two quarters. Output growth in both 2024 and 2025 averaged 3.0%. Growth of labor input in recent quarters has remained comfortably within the range of recent observations. Productivity growth is approximately equal to output growth less growth of labor hours.

The slowdown in productivity growth in the past three quarters might raise concern about the underlying pace of growth. However, the recent easing is not especially alarming, as productivity often moves erratically; soft patches have occurred in the past only to revive in subsequent quarters. Still, the past three quarters have generated a downward drift in the eight-quarter moving average of growth, which is intended to smooth the random changes in productivity. Despite this drift, it is too early to conclude that productivity growth is fading. The softening in recent quarters should be viewed as disappointing only to those expecting a burst in efficiency gains from artificial intelligence. AI, thus far, does not seem to have generated miracles.

Unit labor costs—hourly labor compensation relative to productivity—rose 1.3% in Q2, matching the increase in the prior quarter and trailing the average results in the prior few years. Labor compensation grew moderately in Q2, at 2.7%, and the offset from 1.4% productivity growth left a restrained advance in unit labor costs.

Fed officials have argued in recent months that the labor market is not a factor pushing inflation above the target of 2.0%. The results on unit labor costs support this view. If labor costs were the only factor driving price changes, the 1.3% growth of unit labor costs would suggest an inflation rate below 2.0%.

The productivity and labor cost data are available in Haver’s **USECON** database. The Action Economics expectations figures are in the **AS1REPNA** database.

- Productivity gains, while still respectable, have lost a bit of vigor in recent quarters.
- Unit labor costs rose moderately, suggesting little inflation pressure.

Productivity: Moderate Growth in Q2

260806E.jpg

German orders in June rose by 3.1%, after a 0.3% crawl higher in May and a sharp 3.2% decline in April. Domestic orders have been gradually building a head of steam after falling 2.4% in April; they rose by 1.3% in May and surged by 7.8% in June. Over the same timeline, there was a 3.8% decline in foreign orders in April; that decline was trimmed to 0.3% in May and became a tiny 0.2% increase in June. In all cases, there was a progression from relatively deep negative numbers in April in the wake of the start of the attacks on Iran. That weakness led to stabilization and a moderate increase in May, and then to a lot more strength in June as markets and economies became hopeful that the Iran war was winding down as both parties seemed to be getting slightly punch-drunk.

**Sequential Growth Patterns**
The progression of orders from 12 months to six months to three months is not clean, with a lack of overall trend for orders. Foreign orders move to progressive weakness from 12 months to six months to three months. Domestic orders are somewhat chaotic in their pattern but show a 13.5% increase over 12 months and an explosive 29.6% annual rate increase over three months. The foreign orders series is weak and somewhat concerning, but the domestic order series maintains quite reassuring growth over 12 months and three months.

**Quarter-to-Date Orders**
In quarter-to-date (QTD), the data are now complete even if they are preliminary, with total orders rising 5.8%, foreign orders rising 6.9%, and domestic orders rising 3.8%, all at annual rates. The queue standings on the levels of orders as of June show strong 85-to-90-percentile levels of activity for total orders and foreign orders, with domestic orders coming in at a milder, but still above-median 64.1 percentile standing. When we rank orders in terms of their year-over-year growth rates, total orders have a 73.0 percentile standing, with foreign orders at a 52.5 percentile standing and domestic orders at a 93.0 percentile mark. The growth performance favors domestic orders, but the level of orders that is being achieved is better for foreign compared to domestic orders using historic comparison standards.

**Sales/Real Sector Sales**
Turning to sales, we find them somewhat more erratic in June, showing a decline for manufacturing overall, with all manufacturing sectors showing month-to-month drops except consumer durables where sales have a 2.5% gain. Manufacturing sales in real terms rose by 0.2%, with mixed sector performance. In April, all sales made a 0.1% gain in real terms amid convoluted sector patterns. The sequential performance of retail sales by sector shows the overall trend is progressively weakening, with all manufacturing sales falling by 0.4% over 12 months, by 0.8% at an annual rate over six months, and by 3.7% at an annual rate over three months. Sales decline for all categories over three months, for most categories over six months, and for all categories over 12 months. The sales picture is not particularly healthy, but fortunately that's a look back at what consumers and businesses have done, while, presumably, the orders data are more robust and looking ahead. The queue standing levels for real sales are quite weak. In fact, for manufacturing, the overall ranking is just above 50% at a 50.9 percentile standing. Capital goods have a very strong 71.8 percentile standing. Intermediate goods have a standing just short of their median at a 45.8 percentile. But real sales for consumer goods, consumer durables, and consumer nondurables are extremely weak, in the bottom 10-percentile standing or even weaker. Turning to rankings based upon the pace of sales on year-over-year data, all of the metrics for real sector sales are below the 50% mark, which means they are below their respective medians for the period. However, the rankings are generally clustered around a 40-percentile standing, which is moderately weak, within roughly 10 percentile points of the median. While not encouraging, it's not devastating.

**Industrial Confidence in Europe**
Industrial confidence measures for Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, providing a quick look at the large countries in the European Monetary Union, showed negative readings in June for all the countries, with slight progress made in June compared to May in three of the four countries (France being the exception showing slippage). The averages over 36 months and 12 months again show consistently negative numbers, with very little change over three months compared to 12 months. The rankings of the industrial confidence readings, which are diffusion indexes from the EU, show only Spain with a ranking above its 50-percentile, putting it above its past median. However, France has a 44.3 percentile standing, which is close to the median; Italy has a 37.8 percentile standing; and Germany has the lowest standing at its 32.1 percentile.

260806.jpg

**Summing Up**
The bottom line is that the European industrial data do not show much momentum; they score out as moderately weak. For the most part, German real sales data are also weak; the momentum, gauged by the 12-month growth rate, is below par. However, orders are a relatively bright spot, with growth rankings above the median and in fact quite high, particularly for domestic activity and with strong levels for foreign activity. Momentum is mixed with a choppy domestic number that finishes on a very high note over three months, but that plays against a foreign trend that sees orders consistently weakening. The orders picture for Germany is improving, but for all of Europe conditions are still fairly weak.

German Orders Surge on Domestic Strength

Kathleen Stephansen, CBE

260806A0.jpg

260806B0.jpg

Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose 1,000 to 199,000 in the week ending August 1 from 198,000 in the week ending July 25, revised from 197,000. The four-week average was 198,750 in the August 1 week, down from 203,250 in the prior week. The Action Economics/Haver Analytics Survey looked for 200,000 claims to have been filed.

The total number of unemployment insurance beneficiaries—also known as “continuing claims”— rose by 24,000 to 1.801 million in the week of July 25, from 1.777 million in the week of July 18, revised from 1.782 million. The four-week moving average declined to 1.791 million in the July 25 week from 1.796 million in the July 18 week. The insured unemployment rate remained unchanged at 1.2% in the week of July 25.

The insured unemployment rate varies greatly across individual states and territories. In the week ending July 18, the highest unemployment rates were in Oregon (2.03%), Minnesota (2.06%), Massachusetts (2.13%), Rhode Island (2.27%), Puerto Rico (2.55%) and New Jersey (2.64%). The lowest rates were in South Dakota (0.29%), Florida (0.37%), North Carolina (0.41%), Alabama (0.42%), Louisiana (0.43%), and Arkansas (0.49%). Rates in other notable states include California (1.92%), New York (1.71%), Pennsylvania (1.69%), Illinois (1.61%), and Texas (1.13%). These state data are not seasonally adjusted.

Data on weekly unemployment claims are from the Department of Labor itself, not the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They begin in 1967 and are contained in Haver’s **WEEKLY** database and summarized monthly in **USECON**. Data for individual states are in **REGIONW** back to December 1986.


260806C0.jpg

260806D0.jpg

- New claims rose by 1,000 to 199,000 in the week of August 1.
- Continuing claims rose by 24,000 to 1.801 million in the week ending July 25.
- The insured unemployment rate was unchanged at 1.2% in the week of July 25.

U.S. Initial Unemployment Claims Edged Up in the Week of August 1

260805A8.jpg

260805B8.jpg

Mortgage applications declined 2.9% w/w (-5.3% y/y) in the week ending July 31, following a drop of 6.4% w/w (+0.6% y/y) in the week ending July 24, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey. Applications for loans to purchase a house declined 3.6% w/w (-2.5% y/y) in the latest week, following a similar weekly decline in the week ending July 24. Applications for loan refinancing declined 1.9% w/w (-8.8% y/y) in the July 31 week, after plummeting 9.9% w/w (-2.2% y/y) in the July 24 week and marking the third consecutive weekly decline.

The effective interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate loan rose 3bps to 6.99% in the week ending July 31 from 6.96% in the week ending July 24 and reaching the highest level since July 2025. The rate on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages edged down 4bps to 6.32% in the July 31 week from 6.36% in the July 24 week. The 30-year Jumbo rate rose 2ps to 6.87% in the latest week from 6.85% in the prior week. The rate on a 5-year ARM eased 4bps to 6.40% in the July 31 week from 6.44% in the July 24 week.

The share of applications for refinancing an existing loan rose to 39.9% of total applications in the week of July 31 from 39.5% in the July 24 week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity edged down to 7.9% in the latest week from 8.1% in the July 24 week.

The average size of a mortgage eased 0.8% w/w (+0.1% y/y) to $381,800 in the week ending July 31, following a small rise of 0.3% w/w (2.8% y/y) to $384,700 in the week of July 24. The average size of a purchase loan declined 0.7% w/w (+2.3% y/y) to $442,100 in the latest week, after rising 0.4% w/w (3.8% y/y) to $445,400 in the July 24 week. The average size of a loan to refinance a mortgage edged down 0.2% w/w (-6.0% y/y) to $291,100 in the July 31 week after declining 2.0% w/w (-0.9% y/y) to $291,800 in the week ended July 24.

The Mortgage Bankers Association Survey covers 75% of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications and has been conducted weekly since 1990. Respondents include mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts. The base period and value for all indexes is March 16, 1990=100. The figures for weekly mortgage applications and interest rates are available in Haver’s **SURVEYS** database.

- Both applications for loans to purchase and applications for loan refinancing declined in the latest week.
- Interest rate on 30-year fixed-rate loans rose 3bps to 6.99%, the highest since July 2025. 
- Average loan size edged down.

U.S. Mortgage Applications Declined in the July 31 Week

large_260813A4.jpg

medium_260813A4.jpg

small_260813A4.jpg

thumbnail_260813A4.jpg

260813A4.jpg

large_260813B4.jpg

medium_260813B4.jpg

small_260813B4.jpg

thumbnail_260813B4.jpg

260813B4.jpg

Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose 9,000 to 209,000 in the week ending August 8 from 200,000 in the week ending August 1, revised from 199,000. The four-week average was 199,000 in the August 8 week, unchanged from the prior week. Claims have been largely range-bound for most of the year between 200,000 and 220,000. The Action Economics/Haver Analytics Survey looked for 203,000 claims to have been filed. 

The total number of unemployment insurance beneficiaries—also known as “continuing claims”— declined by 22,000 to 1. 777 million in the week of August 1 from 1.799 million in the week of July 25, revised from 1.801 million. The four-week moving average declined to 1.786 million in the August 1 week, from 1.791 million in the July 25 week. The insured unemployment rate remained unchanged at 1.2% in the week of July 25. 

The insured unemployment rate varies greatly across individual states and territories. In the week ending July 25, the highest unemployment rates were in Oregon (2.03%), Minnesota (2.05%), Massachusetts (2.15%), Rhode Island (2.26%), New Jersey (2.61%), and Puerto Rico (2.65%). The lowest rates were in South Dakota (0.29%), Florida (0.37%), North Carolina (0.41%), Alabama (0.42%), Louisiana (0.43%), and Arkansas (0.49%). Rates in other notable states include California (1.94%), New York (1.71%), Pennsylvania (1.68%), Illinois (1.57%), and Texas (1.10%). These state data are not seasonally adjusted.

Data on weekly unemployment claims are from the Department of Labor itself, not the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They begin in 1967 and are contained in Haver’s **WEEKLY** database and summarized monthly in **USECON**. Data for individual states are in **REGIONW** back to December 1986.


large_260813C4.jpg

medium_260813C4.jpg

small_260813C4.jpg

thumbnail_260813C4.jpg

260813C4.jpg

large_260813D4.jpg

medium_260813D4.jpg

small_260813D4.jpg

thumbnail_260813D4.jpg

260813D4.jpg

- New claims rose by 9,000 to 209,000 in the week of August 8.
- Continuing claims declined by 22,000 to 1.777 million in the week ending August 1.
- The insured unemployment rate was unchanged at 1.2% in the week of August 1.

U.S. Initial Unemployment Claims Edged Up in the Week of August 8

Our global data offering is unparalleled in terms of coverage, quality, and organization. We offer 290+ databases from 2500 government and private sources, a wealth of key survey and forecast data covering the world’s economies, and a robust offering of archive databases that drive machine learning for big data applications.

Optimized for precision analytics, our data is seamlessly integrated with Microsoft Office and all leading statistical packages through our DLX® software and platform independent HaverView™ website. We further offer direct database feeds, client server or cloud-based delivery, and RESTful API.


Privacy Policy

Disclaimer

Contact us

Service Health

A premier time series data platform for the global strategy, research, and quant communities. 

New York

Tokyo

London

Singapore

Economy in Brief

Viewpoints

Contact Us

Our Data

Our Products

What We Do

Our Authors

About Us

Data News

Featured Data Additions

Resources

Release Calendars

Training Center

Webinars

Newsletters

Download Software

For Clients

Live Updates

#### World Economy Tracked for You 
Haver's worldwide economic data coverage provides a productive resource for analysts, strategists, and risk managers alike. With 45+ years as the industry leader, our breadth of data is unmatched.


#### Diverse Data Sources
From international banks to the farthest reaches of emerging markets, our coverage meets the needs of the global research community.

#### Driven By Quality
Committed to quality and transparency, all data sourced and delivered is continuously monitored and validated to ensure the highest level of accuracy. 

#### Global Data 
From archives to forecasts, primary-sourced from around the globe, we offer 290+ time-series databases.

#### Speed Matters
Delivering precise data as quickly as possible is our priority, which we accomplish in about one minute of release.

Data

#### Comprehensive Solutions
Effortlessly navigate, analyze, and visualize data with our broad array of tools and seamless integration with industry leading statistical and econometric packages. Gain insight and share your perspectives with ease.

#### Secure Data Access 
Effortlessly manage and work with data — delivered to your network or via our cloud services. The choices are easy, and the results are the same, fully secure and consistent access.

#### HaverView™
With a commitment to making data accessible for any work environment, our HaverView web application offers a flexible and productive resource for the dynamic research markets we serve. 

#### Data Exports and Workflow Management
Our DLX software integrates with MS Office allowing seamless publication in PowerPoint and Word as well as intuitive data management in Excel. Flexible data feeds are also supported by a variety of methods. 

Software

#### Econometric Software Support
Use our various integration tools to access our data in popular econometric software such as SAS, Stata and MatLab.

#### Designed for Programming
Access our data using multiple programming languages including Python, R, C and C++.

#### RESTful API
Restful API access to all DLX databases, supporting quant and machine learning applications. Big data rejoice!

Connectivity

#### Commentaries, Charts and Webcasts
Our team of noted economists produce a daily offering of commentaries supported by our data and analytics. Our charts and webcasts offer a fresh perspective on the state of world economy.

#### Value Added Calculations
World and regional aggregates and many other value added calculations for individual countries including seasonal and holiday adjustments. We love math!

#### Blue Chip Consensus Forecasts
Survey of America's leading business economists for their forecasts of economic and financial data. Results in two monthly publications, the Blue Chip Economic Indicators and the Blue Chip Financial Forecasts, published by Wolters Kluwer.

#### Curated Navigation
Intuitive menus designed and reviewed by our economists for easy navigation of Haver's expanding ocean of data.

Research

#### Data for Colleges and Universities
Customized data available through HaverView providing access to over 120,000 economic and financial time series for the US and UK.

#### Academic Data Scope
National Account (GDP), Production, Labour Market, Inflation, Monetary/Fiscal Policy & International Trade. High-frequency data covering financial variables and drivers of the real economy, and key ESG environmental indicators. Plus, time series from the IMF on 190+ countries to aid cross comparison.

University

#### Move Back through Time
Terabytes of time series from primary sourced databases available in monthly snapshots as early as 2000, in weekly snapshots as early as 2007 or the point of inception of the database. 

Discover Haver!

Data

Software

Connectivity

Research

University

Archive

World Economy Tracked for You

Diverse Data Sources

Driven By Quality

Global Data

Speed Matters

Economic Commentary

U.S. Initial Unemployment Claims Edged Up in the Week of August 8

Recent Commentaries

Charts of the Week: Beneath the Calm

U.S. CPI in Line with Expectations in July

U.S. Mortgage Applications Rose in the August 7 Week

Italian Inflation Gets Prickly

U.S. Existing Home Sales Fell Again in July

U.S. NFIB Small Business Optimism Climbs in July to an 11-Month High

Latest Releases

Graph of the Week

Sharp drop in China demand for oil helping to limit impact of Middle East conflict on the price

Economy in Brief

Viewpoints