Economy in Brief

The government's jobs numbers will be tough to read for a time as the economy deals with hurricane effects. Nonfarm payrolls declined 33,000 (+1.2% y/y) during September following a 169,000 August increase and a 138,000 July gain. [...]

The overview Although German orders are plagued by volatility and both headline and total orders fell in July, the surge in August orders of 3.6% based on strong domestic-sourced and foreign-sourced demand confirms that order trends [...]

Inventories at the wholesale level rose 0.9% m/m (4.5% y/y) in August following unrevised 0.6% m/m increases in both July and June. Over the past three months, inventories are up at a 9.0% annual rate, up from 7.5% in July. Durable [...]

The government's jobs numbers will be tough to read for a time as the economy deals with hurricane effects. Nonfarm payrolls declined 33,000 (+1.2% y/y) during September following a 169,000 August increase and a 138,000 July gain. [...]

Globally, service sector metrics show continued growth. All countries/regions (hereafter, I will simply reference 'countries' with no change in meaning) show service sector diffusion readings above 50, indicating expansion. I evaluate [...]

Manufacturing sector orders increased 1.2% during August (5.8% y/y) following an unrevised 3.3% July decline. Durable goods orders rose 2.0% (5.4% y/y), revised from the advance report of a 1.7% gain. That followed a 6.8% decline. [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 260,000 (+3.1% y/y) during the week ended September 30 from an unrevised 272,000 in the prior week. Expectations had been for 265,000 initial claims in the Action Economics Forecast [...]

The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services fell to $42.4 billion during August from $43.6 billion during July which was little revised. A $42.8 billion deficit had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Total exports [...]