Category Archives: Weekly

U.S. data from the third week of September was mixed, indicative of an economy pulled in several directions at once. In particular, consumer spending, representing more than two-thirds of U.S. gross domestic product, remains disjointed. Improving credit availability is fueling … Continue reading →

The U.S. economy appears disjointed. Consumers are showing remarkable strength, buying houses, cars and iPhones. However, manufacturing and a broad swath of the service sector is stalled as global risk factors seem to increase daily and we march steadily toward … Continue reading →

Yesterday, the Federal Open Market Committee voted to launch a new round of quantitative easing and to extend their forward guidance for the fed funds rate. The Fed will purchase additional agency mortgage-backed securities, at a pace of $40 billion … Continue reading →

After increasing in July, job growth in August fell back closer to the weak Q2 average. The official Bureau of Labor Statistics job report for August showed a less-than-expected gain of 96,000 jobs. The disappointing numbers for August, which include … Continue reading →

U.S. economic data from the end of summer has generally been better than expected. That happy trend continued this week in the form of better-than-expected home sales and durable goods orders. However, all is not well in Mudville, as significant … Continue reading →

This week’s bumper crop of data was a mixed harvest with generally better news but also some worser[sic] news. The Leading Economic Index for July increased by 0.4 percent, boosted by the surge in residential building permits for the month. … Continue reading →

After a string a soft economic reports through mid-summer we are starting to see some more positive developments, at least for the U.S. The U.S. international trade gap for June narrowed more than expected to -$42.9 billion. This is important … Continue reading →