Economy in Brief

The National Federation of Independent Business reported that its Small Business Optimism Index gained to 96.6 during May after improvement to 95.2 in April. The latest level was its highest since September 2007, just before the [...]

Housing starts in Canada rebounded by a huge 24.7% in April after falling by 18.2% in March. Volatility around this time of year is normal for Canada. Sometimes it comes in Jan/Feb; this year it came a month later. Momentum in starts [...]

The National Association for Business Economics has released new forecasts for U.S. real economic activity. Expectations for 3.1% real GDP growth in 2015 following a 2.5% advance this year are unchanged. Quarterly growth is expected [...]

Individuals' credit usage has picked up with confidence in the staying power of the economic expansion. The Federal Reserve Board reported that consumer credit outstanding increased $26.8 billion during April following a $19.5 billion [...]

Nonfarm payrolls increased 217,000 during May following little-revised gains of 282,000 and 203,000 during the prior two months. A 220,000 increase had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The unemployment rate [...]

German exports surged by 3% in April as imports edged ahead by just 0.1%. This combination sent the German trade surplus to ?17.7 billion in April, up from ?14.99 billion in March. Over 12 months. German exports and imports are [...]

Nonfarm payrolls increased 217,000 during May following little-revised gains of 282,000 and 203,000 during the prior two months. A 220,000 increase had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The unemployment rate [...]

The Federal Reserve's financial accounts data (formerly known as the "flow of funds") for Q1 tally total credit market borrowing at a $2.00 trillion annual rate, down from $3.37 trillion in Q4. Q4 is mildly revised from $3.12 trillion [...]